From about 1945 up until the ’60s Benjamin Britten was lionized as the Great English Composer. But as he failed to embrace the more intellectual rigors of serialism and atonality he was demoted in critical reputation. But these many years later, Britten is more performed than any other 20th Century English composer. “Though not all of Britten’s music is of the first rank, much of it is comparable in quality to the finest compositions of the giants of modernism.” – Commentary