No sooner had the young Hans Keller heard Peter Grimes and decided that its composer was the greatest then living, than he began scattering articles far and wide, proclaiming and probing Britten's genius. In due course this was to lead to a lasting, if not unfraught, friendship between the two men. By devoted detective work amid the most obscure publications, Christopher Wintle has managed to assemble all Keller's essential writings on Britten, while A. M. Garnham offers an insightful commentary on the surviving correspondence. The result is an engrossing new exploration of a unique musical relationship. Bayan Northcott (author of The Way We Listen Now, 2009), Hans Keller's writings on Benjamin Britten appear to make up a self-contained critical monograph, with essays on many of the operas and instrumental pieces written from 1940 on. These include perceptive studies of "The Musical Character', 'Resistances to Britten', 'Gloriana' and 'Operatic Music and Britten', with an approach that blends Freudian psychology with Austro-German musical analysis and criticism.

But Keller was also a Hitler Émigré determined to re-invent his native Vienna in London. Into this cause he drew Britten, whose accomplishments so readily appealed to Europeans, and defied British critics with the force of his advocacy. After co-editing a Britten monograph, he came ever closer to the composer, especially during his BBC years (from 1959-79). The character of the relationship emerges from their letters, which are set into context and published here for the first time. Britten rewarded Keller with the dedication of his last work, the Third String Quartet, the origins of which are also newly revealed. Milein Cosman's 'Operatic Sketchbook' includes striking drawings from Britten's operas of the 1940s and '50s; and Keller's deft guides to Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring and The Beggars Opera appear in the Appendix. The writing bursts with excitement at witnessing the long birth of a great musical oeuvre. Book jacket.