7 Sonnets of Michelangelo

The clue to understanding this intensely ardent song cycle is in the dedication on the first page of the printed score. It reads “To Peter”. These songs, written in 1940, were the first music composed by Britten for the tenor who would be his lifelong partner, Peter Pears. Significantly they are love songs, setting 16th-century poetry by Michelangelo in praise of a young man of captivating beauty. Even allowing for the florid style of High Renaissance verse, their homoerotic nature is clear. And Britten used them as a semi-public statement of his feelings for Pears—preserving the original, ornate Italian as an element of camouflage in times when gay love was illegal. The Italian, though, served other purposes. Britten was 26 when he composed the sonnets, living in America (with Pears) and keen to lay down his credentials as an artist of world outlook. So the settings are determinedly sophisticated, virtuosic, brilliant. Lasting 15 minutes, they describe with energised assertiveness the agonies of love as well as the rewards. The third song (one of Britten’s best) is more relaxed, the voice in circling arabesques above the slow pulse of the piano; while the seventh sums up all that’s gone before, on grand chorale-like terms. The cycle premiered in England at Wigmore Hall in 1942: a concert that helped establish Britten’s homeland reputation as a major artist.