Britten Anniversary Concert

The Britten Anniversary Concert comes to Harrogate Theatre on Saturday 5 December, a night dedicated to the music of Benjamin Britten. It's a single-evening event, with the whole programme built around his work, so if you've spent any time with his music, this is exactly the kind of thing that's easy to get behind.

Britten's writing is famously varied, and a concert like this usually lets that show. He could move from the intimate, almost conversational feel of his songs to the larger, more dramatic scale of his orchestral and choral pieces, and he often did both in the same evening. The anniversary framing suggests a look across that range, rather than sticking to one particular period of his career. It's the sort of programme that works as well if you're coming in with a deep knowledge of his catalogue as it does if you're just starting to get into him.

For those who haven't spent much time with him, Britten is one of the few 20th-century composers whose work still feels immediate and accessible. There's a clarity to it that doesn't require a guidebook to follow, and a strong melodic sense that carries through even his more challenging moments. A dedicated concert like this is a good way to hear that in one go, rather than in bits and pieces.

The concert is at Harrogate Theatre, 3 Garrick Building, Oxford Street, Harrogate, HG1 5QF, on Saturday 5 December. It's a single evening of Britten, so you'll get a good stretch of his music in one sitting.