The Company of Heaven
Benjamin Britten's "cantata for broadcasting"

I have included this page on Britten's little-known work because, together with Susan Tackenberg, I had a speaking role in the first complete performance of the work in Germany (in December, 1997).

Britten composed it for the BBC in 1937, but the score was put into a drawer at the outbreak of the war, and literally forgotten for nearly 50 years - and that is not just a story!

The Company of Heaven has a considerable spoken part, with texts by, amongst others, Theodosius, John Milton, Rhabanus Maurus, John Ruskin, Emily Brontë, Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins, as well as from the Bible.

The performance, in the Stadtkirche, Darmstadt, in the presence of the late Princess Margaret of Hesse and the Rhine, was conducted by Berthold Engel, with soloists:
Doris Brüggermann - soprano
Andreas Wagner - tenor
members of the Südwestfunk Orchestra
the Darmstädter Kantorei

The December performance was recorded, and the CD released on 24th May 1998, on the occasion of the Memorial Concert for the late Princess Margaret. This took place in the Stadtkirche, Darmstadt and included excerpts from The Company of Heaven.