Britten original score to remain in Britain

Composer's draft of Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra has been bought by the British Library. Benjamin Britten's complete draft score of one of his best known and most performed pieces - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - is to stay in the UK after the British Library announced it had come up with the money to buy it. Arts minister Ed Vaizey placed a temporary export bar on the manuscript earlier this month after it was sold at an auction last year to an overseas buyer. He then invited institutions to come up with the £220,000 needed to keep it in Britain. The British Library said it successfully acquired the manuscript for the national collection on 30 March. The Library's lead curator of music, Richard Chesser, said they were delighted adding: "Many of Britten's draft scores give similar evidence of his consummate genius, but this is a particularly fine example and a celebrated piece of music. "It is remarkable that there is no evidence of planning of the larger structure, such as numbering of the variations: this information was added only later, in the full orchestral score. The manuscript is an exciting addition to the British Library's archives." Britten completed the score on New Year's Eve 1945 and played it through on his piano to the producer Basil Wright the next day. He subsequently gave the manuscript to a friend and it remained completely unknown until last year. Vaizey said the Library was a fitting home for the score. "I am delighted that the temporary export bar I placed on the manuscript has resulted in the British Library being able to save this fantastic piece of British musical history for the nation." Along with Peter and the Wolf, Young Person's Guide is most schoolchildren's introduction to orchestral music and was part of last year's Last Night of the Proms with the actor Jenny Agutter reading a new commentary by Wendy Cope.