A year that changed everything — twice

1945 marked the end of theSecond World War. For three composers, it also marked a personal and creativeturning point, and each of them captured that sense of release in music writtenthe very same year.

Britten’s Peter Grimes: the rebirth of British opera

Benjamin Britten was a committedpacifist and conscientious objector. A month after VE Day, his opera PeterGrimes opened at Sadler’s Wells, marking the theatre’s reopening. It’s stillcredited with reviving British opera — and with establishing Britten as theleading British composer of his generation.

A week later came the Four SeaInterludes, drawn from the opera and now its best-loved concert piece.

Martinů’s Symphony No. 4: a symphony of optimism

Bohuslav Martinů had lived inAmerica since 1941. He was halfway through composing his Symphony No. 4 whennews came through of Germany’s surrender — and the symphony is full of anoptimism and joy that feels far from accidental.

Korngold’s Violin Concerto: a promise kept

Erich Wolfgang Korngold had madehimself a wartime promise: to write only film music, the source of his family’sfinancial security, until Hitler was defeated. The end of the war set him freefrom that promise. With encouragement from the violinist and fellow émigréBronisław Huberman, the first concert work he wrote afterwards was his ViolinConcerto — lush, lyrical, and still one of the best-loved violin concertos ofthe twentieth century.

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