 His close association with Benjamin Britten began in 1946, when he played in the premiere of his opera "The Rape of Lucretia" in the first postwar season of the Glyndebourne Festival.He took part in each of the early Aldeburgh Festivals, including in the premieres of Britten's operas "Albert Herring" and "Noye's Fludde".The composer conducted the Melos Ensemble in the first performance of his "War Requiem" in Coventry in 1962, and also in the first recording of it in 1963.