麻豆社

The most successful piece ever written for a Ministry of Education documentary film was called Instruments of the Orchestra. It was due to be released in November 1946 - but the people of Liverpool got a sneak preview on 15 October, when Malcolm Sargent conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Benjamin Britten's The Young Person鈥檚 Guide to the Orchestra.

This supremely genial piece of music became the bedrock of early-years classical music education in the UK for decades. But it鈥檚 not just a great piece of pedagogy: it鈥檚 a great set of orchestral theme and variations. The theme is a rondeau by Henry Purcell, which Britten takes and passes all around the orchestra, each variation introducing a new instrument or section. Pleasingly, it starts high and ends low.

Britten knew he鈥檇 done well. According to a recording engineer at the film sessions, he 鈥渨as sort of jumping about and laughing with pleasure at hearing what he had done鈥�. Programmers wanted to call it Variations on a Theme by Henry Purcell, but Britten objected, not wanting it to sound pretentious. He wrote that he was glad that the "Min. of Ed. chaps" approved, continuing: "I never really worried that it was too sophisticated for kids 鈥� it is difficult to be that for the little blighters."

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by 麻豆社 Radio 3鈥檚 Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a 麻豆社 season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This archive recording features with 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra with conductor Keith Lockhart.

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