Harewood House, Leeds, 13 March 2009

George Lascelles, Earl of Harewood (1923–2011) had an important role in promoting opera in the United Kingdom. For a summary of his association with Britten, which, it should be noted, ended in mid-1964, see BBLL 3, p. 475.

Britten's creative relationship with Russia is unusual for an English composer. How would you explain it?

Ben's initial feeling over Russia in the mid-1930s was instinctive, because he was instinctively a rebel, and at that time we were not on good terms with Russia. He also felt that the Russians treated musicians – particularly composers but probably other creative artists as well – rather better than we treated them over here, and I think that impressed him.

Why did Britten admire Tchaikovsky?

I don't know when this started or how. I do remember taking him for the first time to see Eugene Onegin [in Zurich in 1952] and his enthusiastic reaction to it. Ben admired Tchaikovsky because he thought the music marvellous. He was very particular in the music he liked and didn't like. He didn't like Brahms and said, ‘I need not be right, but I'm entitled to say it because I think I know every note that Brahms wrote.’ The later relevance over The Prince of the Pagodas is a more specific one. Ben said that Tchaikovsky was so professional amongst other things that the actual lengths of Tchaikovsky's ballets for dancers would be accurate. It was very important for him to get an idea from a composer, as opposed to a choreographer, of these lengths.

Was Britten's aversion to Musorgsky a reflection of a suspicion of musical nationalism?

He certainly knew Musorgsky's music, but wasn't enthusiastic about it and I don't think he was particularly interested. I don't think he ever made a judgement without having the knowledge to back it up. He knew an awful lot of music and had such a powerful musical personality himself that he could become familiar with a piece of music, and know more about it, as he was a great composer himself, than other people who had known it much longer.