Birmingham will be kicking off national concerts marking the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten this weekend. Christopher Morley speaks to tenor Ian Bostridge about his involvement in the musical programme.

One of Britten’s most enchanting works is the Hymn to Saint Cecilia, composed to word by W.H. Auden and composed during a dangerous Atlantic crossing on a Swedish cargo-ship from America back to the war-torn UK. We shall be hearing that during Saturday’s Town Hall concert from Ex Cathedra (7.30pm), bringing a cornucopia of some of the composer’s most glorious choral music.

But the solo tenor voice was also very important in Britten’s output, thanks to his lifelong partnership with Peter Pears, whose idiosyncratic tenor timbre coloured so many of the composer’s works.

Ian Bostridge is one of the many post-Pears generation of tenors onto whom the mantle of performing these works has fallen, and he plays a large part in Birmingham’s BrittenFest over the next few weeks. As he explains, he welcomes the spirit of Pears hovering over his shoulder as he performs.

“I’m grateful to him for inspiring such a body of music for the tenor, and for creating a sort of repertoire focus for singers like me – Bach, Lieder, Britten and so on.

“The sound is so singular, so very much of its time, that it’s not a burden to have him there in the background.”

And Peter Pears remains among Ian’s role-models, alongside the great German tenor Fritz Wunderlich who died so tragically young, with so much to offer before him, and Worcester-born John Mark Ainsley.

As one of the country’s foremost interpreters of Britten’s music, Ian is in for a busy year. How will he maintain his enthusiasm for the composer over such a sustained long period?

“It’s extraordinary music of course, and there’s a great mix for me of the familiar – the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, the War Requiem (which I’ve sung more than 60 times) – and the unfamiliar, especially the Church Parable Curlew River, which I’ve wanted to do for ages and never have.

“There is so much going on with Britten: an extraordinary melodic gift, which in later works he sometimes restrains in the interest of musical power; a fabulous way with words; and a supreme theatrical sense, in the song cycles and choral pieces as much as in the operas. So I don’t think there’s any danger of my enthusiasm waning!”

Britten’s vocal writing shows a really sensitive response to the words of often extremely fine poetry. Does this put an extra burden upon the interpreter?

“Not a burden, more of an opportunity,” Ian declares. “Britten sets English better than any composer since Purcell, and he chooses texts which are deep and fascinating – Donne, Hardy, Eliot and so on.

“He isn’t reverential, doesn’t pussyfoot around, but seizes the poem by the scruff of the neck and is, hence, truer than anyone to the poetic process.”

“It is in the nature of Ian’s work that he shares partnerships with a wide range of accompanists, both pianists and conductors. He tells how he sets about building a relationship with these fellow-musicians.

“I have a long-term and close relationship with the pianist Julius Drake which is deeply musically satisfying.

“We know each other so well that we can invent on the spur of the moment and act in concert or at loggerheads almost.

“There’s a mutual understanding and a tension which I find very stimulating.

“At the same time, partnerships with other musicians are important and often bring something very new – they’re always long term musical friendships though – with Tom Ades, Mitsuko Uchida, Leif Ove Andsnes and the Royal Opera House music director Tony Pappano in particular.”

Away from Britten, Schubert and the many other composers he has made his own, Ian Bostridge has indulged in some very elegant cross-over (his Noel Coward CD figures in a particular talk I deliver to music clubs). He would love to dip his toes deeper into those waters, partnering the usually baroque soprano Sophie Daneman.

“Sophie and I are longing to do more - an orchestral evening of Cole Porter would be great fun!”

We end by enthusing over Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, in my opinion the greatest song of its genre ever written.

“I have sung it, infrequently,” says Ian..”A tough nut to crack...”

* Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake perform at Birmingham Town Hall on January 16 (7.30pm). He also sings with the CBSO at Symphony Hall on March 6 (7.30pm). Details for both on 0121 780 3333. For more information on the centenary celebrations, visit www.thsh.co.uk