Accessibility for kids

Benjamin Britten wrote the score to Instruments of the Orchestra, which would become the concert work, Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. The theme to the score was based on a hornpipe from Purcell’s Abdelzer. Britten commented to the producer, Basil Wright, that “I was never really worried that it was too sophisticated for kids – it is difficult to be that for the little blighters.”

The film was made with the London Symphony Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent. First shown 29 Nov 1946.

Source: Classic FM, April 2010, p.65.

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