Study score for Britten’s first mature song-cycle, written as a commission from the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and described by the composer as ‘my real opus 1’. It is also his first work to deal with a recurring theme in his output: man’s inhumanity to man. A tour-de-force of vocal bravura for either soprano or tenor soloist, and of orchestral virtuosity, Our Hunting Fathers is increasingly recognized as one of Britten’s most original and brilliantly daring early works.