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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Britten‘s War Requiem: 50th anniversary in Coventry
Britten: | War Requiem, Op. 66 Live Recording from Coventry Cathedral, 30 May 2012 |
2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations. The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today. "The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD Format: DVD 9, NTSC, 25 GB (Single Layer) Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES Running Time: 97 mins FSK: 0 “It is an irony that the strengths of the performance are exactly those aspects thought to have been the most damagingly weak at the premiere. The orchestral sound is well judged , combining atmospheric resonance with the right amount of clarity...The CBSO forces, orchestra and chorus alike, make handsome amends for the shambles reported at the premiere.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
For his first LSO Live recording, Gianandrea Noseda is joined by three of today’s most widely acclaimed singers for a magnificent performance of Benjamin Britten’s choral masterpiece. Premiered 50 years ago on 30 May 1962, the 'War Requiem' was commissioned for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by bombing raids during the Second World War. Using the Latin mass of the dead, interspersed with texts by war poet Wilfred Owen, Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector, created a work that both mourned the dead and pleaded the futility of war. The 'War Requiem' was to become one of the defining choral works of the 20th Century. Gianandrea Noseda was the first foreign Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and over the past decade his reputation in the opera house and concert hall has blossomed. He regularly conducts the LSO, as well as many of the world’s other great orchestras, and is Music Director of the Teatro Regio in Turin. Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Sabina Cvilak perform regularly in the world’s leading opera houses and are renowned for their performances in Britten’s music. The LSO and LSC have both enjoyed long relationships with the composer and appeared on the first recording of the 'War Requiem', conducted by Britten himself. 'Noseda’s unashamedly dramatic interpretation held the audience transfixed. It was all so vivid … an overwhelming evocation of the grief, the waste and the pity of war’ The Times (UK) High resolution recording, live at the Barbican in October 2011 Stereo and multi-channel 5.0 Total playing time 83m 46s ‘Noseda marshalled the finest War Requiem that I have heard' The New Yorker (USA) “Noseda proves a more than worthy substitute [for Colin Davis], easily encompassing the dramatic scale of the work...Sabina Cvilak has a bright, silvery penetrating timbre. Ian Bostridge’s tenor is as individual and idiosyncractic as Pears’s in its own way. Simon Keenlyside, too, is magnificent, while the two choirs relish their grateful, inspiring music.” Sunday Times, 15th April 2012 “The LSO and its Chorus are on cracking form, and the soloists are as good as you will get…No one should be without the composer’s recording, also with the LSO, but half a century later, Noseda’s Dramatic, pulsating account represents another landmark.” Financial Times, 28th April 2012 “Noseda offers an account rich in drama...forging a sense of momentum and cohesion..Few singers deliver text with as much conviction and engagement as Bostridge, who finds the right tone for the bitterness of war...[Keenlyside] sounds every inch the soldier, conveying the pain of war and a bleak sense of loss...Cvilak is very good, particularly fine in floating her high notes in the 'Lacrimosa'..this performance is incredibly moving” International Record Review, May 2012 “the two-CD set certainly captures the thrill of the moment in a reading notable both for its hushed intensity and dramatic sweep. Noseda’s an Italian, after all, and the clamorous Dies irae and supercharged choral prayers wouldn’t disgrace a Verdi opera...The LSO and the London Symphony Chorus are the performance’s rock: they start on top form and stay that way. Another essential recording, with or without the Britten centenary.” The Times, 4th May 2012 **** “[Noseda] brings a strong sense of Italianate lyricism to bear on the score, reminding us of Britten's conscious debt to Verdi's Requiem. The choral singing is fervent and intense, the playing fierce and sensitive by turns. Sabina Cvilak is the thrilling, hieratic soprano, though her male counterparts” The Guardian, 10th May 2012 **** “[Noseda] delivers it afresh as a scintillating achievement...Sabina Cvilak's soprano has the focus, though not always the required gravitas, while tenor Ian Bostridge brings a piercing sincerity to all his solos...Keenlyside takes a different approach: sonorous, commanding, but sometimes lacking the necessary bitter edge...Nevertheless, this is an important issue: Noseda's judgement of pace is unerring, and the orchestra and chorus simply superb.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 **** “Noseda conducts the most blazing War Requiem I have heard in any circumstances...The LSO’s brass section rips into the score’s martial elements with full-blooded ferocity...This is a searing recording, a match for the very best and more powerful than any other version I know in communicating Britten’s anti-war agenda. Fifty years on, here is a War Requiem for our own troubled times.” classicalsource.com, 31st May 2012 “In some ways this is the most affecting and emotionally draining reading the work has ever received — and that includes the premiere recording by Britten itself, which established a high benchmark for many years. This is a considerable achievement.” CD Choice “Noseda's live performance seeks to take the audience on a journey from the edge of consciousness to the blazing fires of the battlefield...Bostridge spins a beautiful line in the tenor's lyrical passages...Keenlyside is excellent throughout...Decisive and confident, the soprano Sabina Cvilak has the Slavic edge to her voice that has seemed hard-wired into the part since the incomparable Vishnevskaya” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “the LSO Live account has great clarity and tonal sophistication. The Eltham choir is crisp and well balanced...The LSO certainly play well and the brass in the Dies irae are especially thrilling...All else pales next to Bostridge’s deeply moving, extraordinarily nuanced singing in Futility...The LSO chorus deserve a mention in dispatches. Their quiet singing in Pie Jesu is ineffably beautiful.” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem & Bliss: Morning Heroes
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
“Britten was writing personally for three muses who had all shared the wartime experience...His incandescent commitment to pacificism and horror at the failure of humanism blazes forth...As you can hear in the revealing out-takes from the rehearsals on this recording, Britten wanted real terror, real hysteria from the singers, and he got it.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 “among the most magnetic performances of British music ever put on record” Gramophone Magazine “Britten conducts with unique authority and all the performers respond with evident and complete commitment. The playing of the LSO is magnificently incisive...even if you already have this recording of War Requiem in its original format I’d urge you to acquire this release also simply for the sake of these rehearsal sequences...this Britten recording has an irreplaceable page in the annals of this wonderful and profoundly moving work.” MusicWeb International, September 2006 “The merits of this ground-breaking performance is that it so arrestingly conveys Britten's intentions. We're lucky to have not only Britten's irreplaceable reading refurbished, but also his commentary suggested by the rehearsal sequences.” Penguin Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten‘s War Requiem: 50th anniversary in Coventry
Britten: | War Requiem, Op. 66 Live Recording from Coventry Cathedral, 30 May 2012 |
2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations. The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today. "The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray) Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES Running Time: 97 mins FSK: 0 “The three soloists are not, perhaps, quite as eminently as the originals, but they're all excellent...[Nelsons's] un-English reading, more tautly controlled and vigorous than Britten's own, reveals unexpected hues and beauties in the score. This never drags, despite so much inner darkness, and the camera enhances the performance” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***** “[Padmore] is simply outstanding...Erin Wall projects the soprano part extremely well...Orchestra and choirs played their parts admirably but the overall accolade...must go to Andris Nelsons for the wonderful way in which he holds the whole thing together.” MusicWeb International, January 2013 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
“This is a rather cautious account of the War Requiem. The soloists are first-rate and the choral singing is excellent, but the emotional effect is slightly cool.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 *** | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
This live performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem was recorded at a memorable concert in Utrecht in May last year. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir, and Netherlands Children’s Choir are directed by the highly-rated Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden. The soloists are soprano Evelina Dobracheva, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, and baritone Mark Stone. Born in Amsterdam in 1960, Jaap Van Zweden began his musical career as a violinist, becoming at 19 the youngest ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1997, van Zweden made the decision to conduct full time, and was named the chief conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra where he remained until 2003. In 2000, he added the music directorship of the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague to his credits, a post he held until 2005. Jaap van Zweden began his third season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in September 2010. His commitment to the orchestra was recently extended through the 2015-2016 season. Coventry Cathedral was almost entirely destroyed during a German air raid in 1940, with only the outer walls, bell tower and tomb of the first bishop remaining intact. The new building was completed in 1962 and musically inaugurated with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in a performance broadcast live by the BBC. The release of this new recording by Dutch forces coincides with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral on 30 May. “With a formidable blend of Slavic steel and sensuality in her rich soprano, she provides the gleaming core to a deeply satisfying Libera me...Griffey's heavy vibrato makes for unevenness and vague diction, and he lacks a certain piercing ardour. Stone is, by contrast, strikingly direct, particularly in his most eloquent soliloquy as the dead German soldier.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 **** “A broadly paced, idiomatic War Requiem showcasing fine choral and orchestral contributions and mostly idiomatic solo singing.” Classical Music, 14th July 2012 *** “van Zweden is calm, purposeful, unexaggerated...It is when the emotional temperature needs to rise that van Zweden is sometimes found wanting...the Latin Mass goes well, thanks also to the Slavic-sounding soprano, Evelina Dobracheva, despite the wobble in the middle of her voice...Mark Stone is strong and forthright in the baritone solos” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 “Stone's singing...is a revelation, and a strong argument in favour or acquiring this set...a fine example of a singer bringing something new and convincing to a role, thereby enriching our experience of it. The choirs sing with immense skill and feeling, and the orchestral playing leaves nothing to be desired...I can't warm to Griffey's singing, but in all other respects I find this a compelling and moving performance.” International Record Review, September 2012 “There’s a good deal to admire in this performance. The Netherlands Radio Choir sings well...The orchestral playing...is on a par with the level of choral accomplishment...[Stone] sings expressively without overdoing things...this performance is, I think, the best thing I’ve heard him do.” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66Recorded live at the Mann Auditorium, Tel-Aviv 8.4.1996
The War Requiem was commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 1962 after the original 14th century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid on the night of 14 November 1940. As a pacifist, Britten was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen. For the opening performance, it was intended that the soloists should be Galina Vishnevskaya (a Russian), Peter Pears (an Englishman) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (a German), to demonstrate a spirit of unity. Close to the premiere, the USSR did not permit Vishnevskaya to travel to Coventry for the event, although she was later permitted to leave to make the recording in London. With only ten days' notice, Heather Harper stepped in and learned the soprano role. The premiere, conducted by the composer, was a triumph, achieving an impact matched by few works in the 20th century and accordingly hailed by critics and audiences, at this and subsequent performances in London and abroad, as a contemporary masterpiece. Kurt Masur, Honorary Guest Conductor for life with the IPO, whilst not the composer, is none the less a more accomplished conductor, with a highly acclaimed 1998 NY Phil War Requiem on Teldec plus a more recent performance from 2005 with the LPO already available.It is clearly a piece close to his heart. | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Britten: War Requiem & Les Illuminations
| | | This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched. |
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