I think we'd need more context to know what Palmer says Britten is doing with his fourths and fifths. I doubt it's full-fledged quartal harmony; it could be individual fourth-based chords, or it could be horizontal harmony, intervals of fourths and fifths in the melodic line.
It does seem to me that Palmer is acknowledging that the "formulas" of fourths and fifths are conventional. What he's praising Britten for is an ability to use those formulas to express a totally different emotional effect. What's cliched, in his view, about the tritone is not its existence, it's its use to generate a particular stock response. When we reach the point where (to use an example I know irked you) that Bartok sounds like monster movie music, we are in the land of cliche.
Mind you, I'm not endorsing Palmer's view of Britten's artistic achievement. As I also wrote in response to the original post, I count The Turn of the Screw as the least interesting Britten opera I've ever heard.
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It does seem to me that Palmer is acknowledging that the "formulas" of fourths and fifths are conventional. What he's praising Britten for is an ability to use those formulas to express a totally different emotional effect. What's cliched, in his view, about the tritone is not its existence, it's its use to generate a particular stock response. When we reach the point where (to use an example I know irked you) that Bartok sounds like monster movie music, we are in the land of cliche.
Mind you, I'm not endorsing Palmer's view of Britten's artistic achievement. As I also wrote in response to the original post, I count The Turn of the Screw as the least interesting Britten opera I've ever heard.