Benjamin Britten first recording of the "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings", which has frequently been reissued, most recently on CD. Britten's first operatic recording was "The Turn of the Screw", made in January 1955 with the original English Opera Group forces. In 1957 he conducted "The Prince of the Pagodas" in an early stereo recording, supervised by Culshaw. Decca's first major commercial success with Britten came the following year, with "Peter Grimes", which has, at 2013, never been out of the catalogues since its first release. From 1958 Britten conducted Decca recordings of many of his operas and vocal and orchestral
Canticles (Britten) an ambitious musical structure." Canticles (Britten) The five Canticles constitute a series of five musical works by composer Benjamin Britten. The pieces were written at various points in his career, with three of them written as memorials. Instrumentation differs on each piece, and several are based on non-sacred texts. A review in "Opera Today" notes, "Britten didn't draw upon the Scriptures for the texts of his canticles, which resemble cantatas more than church hymns in scale and structure, but an intense religious spirit pervades them all." Critic Peter Evans notes the works contain a "mood of spiritual elevation intense enough