Deryk Barker wrote:

>Was this not, in fact, the very purpose for which the film was made?

Absolutely.  The film, "Instruments of the Orchestra," was commissioned in
1945 by the Ministry of Education and was produced by the Crown Film Unit
to be used in classrooms in the UK, where it was shown to school children
for many years as an educational film.  Charles Barber is correct about
the concert premiere of Britten's score on October 15, 1946 by Sir Malcolm
Sargent and the Liverpool Philharmonic.  However, the theatrical premiere
of the film, now termed a documentary, took place only a mere six weeks
later, on November 29, 1946, at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square,
London.

John Dalmas
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