Customer Reviews

Britten: War Requiem; Sinfonia da Requiem; Ballad of Heroes

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I own three different recordings of Britten's War Requiem (his own recording on Decca; the EMI recording with Simon Rattle conducting, which is a close second in my view; and this Richard Hickox recording, which I purchased as soon as it was released several years ago).

This one is still the tops in overall sound quality, interpretation and sheer power. If anyone has ever hesitated in trying to get to know this work, or is new to classical music and exploring, or loves Britten's War Requiem and wants the best recording available, this one is it, hands down. I have never heard a performance of the "Sanctus" with as much depth and luminosity as this one.

By the way, many other Richard Hickox recordings on the Chandos label are worth exploring, but for the sake of brevity, I will not list them here.

I doubt that we will ever have a recording of the War Requiem that will top this one overall. The soloists, chorus, orchestra and musical interpretation are all first rate. The audio engineering has created an extremely open sound with perfect balance between the chorus and the soloists. The result of all this technical and artistic brilliance is a profoundly moving experience for the listener, who is left with feelings of awe and angst, which is almost certainly what Britten wanted. Given the present mood of the world, the anti-war sentiments contained in this Requiem may not sit well with some, but they are valid and true, nonetheless. This is Britten's masterpiece and is certainly one of the greatest musical compositions of the twentieth century. Someday, its greatness will be widely recognized.

Oddly, what is perhaps the highlight of this CD comes not in the Requiem, but in the Ballad for Heroes. The choral climax in the third section is truly overwhelming. Having never heard the work before, I was totally unprepared for it and was nearly brought to tears.

I wholeheartedly agree with the reviewers below who are so enthusiastic about Hickox's 1991 War Requiem, the best in the thirty years after the premiere recording. I've heard various other sets, which struck me as follows: John Eliot Gardiner's on DG, recorded with a German orchestra and his own Monteverdi Choir, has unlistenable, shrill sonics and soloists not well attuned to Owen's poetry. Rattle is much better (EMI) but feels a little underplayed to me, despite excellent forces all around. Masur with the NY Phil. (Teldec) is much too cautious, despite the excellent duo of Thomas Hampson and Jerry Hadley in the male solo parts. A budget issue from Naxos recorded at a summer festival in Scotland, directed by Martyn Brabbins, is quite powerful and direct, with particularly excellent choral work but too-literal soloists. A live reading under Giulini on BBC Legends finds Peter Pears singing with even mire passion than on the premiere recording -- it's a nearly great performance despite so-so broadcast sonics.

Which narrows the choice down to Britten's Decca recording and this one, both with the London Sym. Both also have excellent sonics, though Chandos's digital engineering is more close-up and impactful. It adds to the forceful drama of Hickox's interpretation, contrasted with the more elegaic, mournful tone of Britten's. If you want maximum excitement, this is the recording to get. In the solo parts, I recognize the unique position Peter Pears occupied in Britten's music, but for beauty of voice, he's bettered by Langridge for Hickox, who's nearly as sensitive and poetic.

Between the two baritones, I have no hesitation preferring Shirley-Quirk over Fischer-Dieskau. Britten was making a pacifist point by picking a singer from Germany in the post-Nazi era, but F-D's command of English can't compare to Shirley-Quirk's, who also blessedly lacks F-D's bark. Neither soprano is ideal, Vishnevskaya being too piercing (as Slavic sopranos tend to be) and Heather Harper, although graceful and sincere, past her prime.

On both sets the LSO plays magnificently, and the various choirs, adult and children's, are exemplary--but again, Hickox's dramatic thrust and the closer miking from Chandos give more visceral impact to the choruses in his recording. I've tried to impartially summarize each version, and overall I am glad to own both. If you wanted only one? My choice would be the Hickox, for the reasons already stated.

When Vishnevaskaya was denied permission to leave the USSR, it was Heather Harper who stepped in at just 10 days notice to learn the part and sing at the premiere of War Requiem (like Messiah, it has no definite article) in Coventry Cathedral. That was the best part of 30 years before this recording was made. And therein lies the tragedy. No-one who heard that premiere or many of the early subsequent performances in which she sang could every forget the glory of her Rex Tremendae or the heartbreak of the Lacrymosa or indeed any of her part then. Sadly, by the time of this recording, the voice was no longer what it was - some of the brilliance at the top had gone, some of the richness and warmth in its middle-register, too. So this performance is a wonderful reminder of those glory days and is certainly invested with all the depth and understanding of her experience of the piece - but what a shame she wasn't recorded years before.

Some of the same could be said of John Shirley-Quirk in the baritone part. In the days of those early performances it was usually Tom Hemsley (a sadly underrepresented singer on disc) who took the role. Nevertheless, Shirley-Quirk, too, must be said to be a little past his prime by the time of this Hickox recording. The voice, which never had quite the edge Hemsley brought to his singing of the more bitterly ironic Owen poems, was when in its prime more than a match for Fischer-Dieskau (who sang at the premiere and on the Britten recording) in smoothness and warmth. No question but that some of that had gone by the time of this performance. But there is much to admire in Shirley-Quirk's singing here, especially in his familiar sensitivity and responsiveness to the text. Again...if only it had been a few years earlier in his career.

Langridge, as always, presents a very real alternative to the Peter Pears point of view in Britten. This is a voice still very much in its prime and a very different voice to Pears, for whom the part was written. No, he can't quite match the original tenor's ineffably and uniquely smooth way of singing through 'the break' in passages such as the Dona nobis pacem at the end of the Agnus Dei. But the irony of a piece like 'Out There' or the bitter heartbreak of 'Move Him into the Sun' are both absolutely masterful in Langridge's performance. And the final pages as the two dead enemies sing each other to sleep are as moving as ever.

Hickox conducts a fine performance - he knows his Britten well and all his experience as a chorus master is put to outstanding effect in the singing of the London Symphony Chorus. Inevitably, there are not quite the insights given us by the composer himself in his still unequalled first recording, but this is still a substantial performance - if tinged with sadness that Harper and Shirley-Quirk weren't caught in their prime.

Having listened to most of the other interpretations of Britten's War Requiem, I found this version to have the best overall quality, especially Heather Harper managing to avoid the shrill, piercing sounds other sopranos have made in the same part.

As a bonus, you also get the instrumental Sinfonia da Requiem, an piece written for the 2000th anniversary of Japan's emperor's dynasty (it was rejected), and Ballad of Heroes, a sort of miniature but no less effective piece in the mold of War Requiem.

An essential buy for War Requiem/Britten fans.

Richard Hickox's performance of Britten's War Requiem is a very fine one. I have had a copy of the composer's recording since it became available on CD. Philip Langridge is magnificent. Being accustomed to hearing Peter Pears sing the tenor role, Mr. Langridge's voice reminded but also brings his own coloring and shadings. John Shirley-Quirk is equally splendid in the baritone roll. Britten selected Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau for his recording, selecting a German speaker to represent the German soldier. If the accented speech of Fischer-Dieskau brings more "authenticity" to the baritone role, nothing is lost with John Shirley-Quirk. Heather Harper brings elegance to the soprano part. Her voice is beautifully expressive, soaring to the high notes without becoming shrill. The London Symphony and London Symphony Chorus also perform with great sensitivity and beauty. However, I still prefer the recording by Benjamin Britten for its power to move me. Richard Hickox chooses broader tempi, particularly in the Sanctus and Libera Me. The slower tempi sap the drama of the music.

My only real complaint is that the recording did not have separate tracks for the Wilfred Owen poems indexing only of the Latin mass sections.

Unlike the Britten recording, this one includes a fine performance of the Sinfonia da Requiem and the Ballad of Heroes, first performed in 1939. The Ballad of Heroes was intended to honor the heroes of the Spanish Civil War, and is in three sections played without a break. It is has a similar structure to the Sinfonia da Requiem beginning with a funeral march, followed by a Scherzo (Dance of Death) and ending with a Recitative and Choral. The text used consists of three war poems by W. H. Auden and Randall Swingler. Britten's use of chorus and soloists looks forward to the War Requiem. The inclusion of the seldom-performed Ballad makes an interesting coupling with the Requiem and Sinfonia.