Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra / Suite on English Folk Tunes / Johnson Over Jordan / Four Sea Interludes

Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra has another name that you should know: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, and though you can buy it with narration, as a piece of music it's vastly preferable without. The work really does speak for itself in the clearest possible way. The Four Sea Interludes have rapidly become the most famous "water music" since Debussy's La Mer. They are wholly marvelous, especially the evocative "Sunday Morning" music. The other two pieces are relative rarities--the Suite was one of Britten's last completed compositions. Everything here is very well performed and recorded. --David Hurwitz