The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Originally composed by Benjamin Britten for an educational film late in 1945, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra quickly proved itself an effective concert hall piece and is now usually performed without the spoken commentary used in various forms in its earliest outings. After each instrument has played its own variation on a theme by the 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell (the “Rondeau” from Abdelazar), Young Person’s Guide culminates in a lively fugue in which all the instruments are reintroduced, starting with the piccolo. Just as the fugue becomes most hectic, with the entire orchestra apparently at full tilt, Britten then reintroduces Purcell’s theme played by the brass, like a great ship ploughing through a billowing sea. It’s a truly triumphant and thrilling end. The work starts, more conventionally, with the full orchestra playing Purcell’s theme, then played by each “family” of the orchestra in turn. Woodwind is followed by brass, then strings, and then percussion before a final restatement by the full orchestra. Then follow the variations, each vividly characterising the instrument playing it, whether soulful oboe or agile clarinets. And there’s plenty of exuberance and humour along the way.