Britten and Pears had astonishingly hectic professional lives. Outside of Britten’s composing commitments and Pears’s singing career, they had a busy schedule of touring together as a recital duo, premiering operas, and putting on the annual Aldeburgh Festival. Their closest companions formed an enduring core over the years that was of great personal importance to both men. They had their own individual friends, but their most regular holiday companions and, at times, housemates were friends of them both. For the most part, it is striking that many of these friends were heterosexual couples and ‘conventional’ family units, although their circle did embrace gay friends Colin Graham, William Plomer, and Basil Coleman. The couples they both worked and holidayed with included John and Myfanwy Piper, Erwin and Sofie Stein – parents of Marion Stein, later Lady Harewood – and the flamboyant Russian couple Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. This chapter introduces these close companions, among many others, and the extent to which they provided a nurturing and creatively stimulating circle of friends to Britten and Pears.

Britten’s primary role was as a composer, but he possessed a unique ability to assemble musicians for performances which was second only to his skill at arranging notes for his compositions. His choices were impeccable in both activities. When he combined these — a specific piece composed for a specific performer — he produced music of startling originality. This chapter contextualises the instrumental music he wrote for each of the Aldeburgh Festivals that he personally directed. The focus is on select performers, many of whom function as subtexts in the music Britten created, and the premiere performances that helped to shape the festival season, including details of the original encounter that lead to the creation of the work and the collaborative process that produced such exceptional music.