This international ensemble of crack musicians reveals the next generation’s star soloists; led by violinist Markus Däunert (leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra), they deliver fresh and energetic performances of some of Britten’s finest music for string ensemble. This recording is the conclusion of projects celebrating Britten’s centenary in 2013, at which Aldeburgh Strings performed the closing concert in Britten’s musical home of Snape Maltings.

The recording opens with Young Apollo, a radiant, expressive, characterful and dramatic work, featuring pianist Lorenzo Soulès. The Lachrymae subtitled ‘reflections on a song of Dowland’ explores the viola’s intensely mellow sonorities; Máté Szücs (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) is the soloist.

The Prelude and Fugue finds Britten indulging in the exuberant technical wizardry of his youthful period whilst recalling Bach’s sophisticated contrapuntal textures. To close, one of the great masterpieces of Britten's canon: the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. The award-winning tenor Allan Clayton and horn player Richard Watkins are the soloists, the latter reprising his role 30 years after first performing it with Peter Pears.

The Aldeburgh Strings ensemble is a product of the Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme, founded over forty years ago by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, in order to provide high-level performance training for the world’s best emerging professional musicians. Tutors are drawn from some of the world’s finest orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philharmonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and direct the ensemble sections from within, in an inspiring dual role of mentor and performer.