Customer Reviews

Britten: War Requiem

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Britten's reading is raw, transparent, vicious, thunderous, and very original. Especially nice is to actually understand the words of the two male soloists without having to refer to the booklet. His soloists are strong and clear, his choruses are tip-top perfect, the LSO is divine. It's hard to say something bad about this performance, except perhaps that Vishnevskaya can be slightly grating in certain sections.
In a lot of ways I like Robert Shaw's more "glossed" "mainstream" performance, and that performance also has a lot of punch behind it, especially the purely orchestra/chorus sections. Britten's of course, is definitive. It certainly is the strongest case to convince you of the effectiveness of the integrated texts. In the Shaw version you can hardly make English text from latin text because of the thickness of voice of tenor and bass.
So get this and enjoy the music, as well as the very revealing and funny rehearsals tagged on at the end of disc 2. This is a safe five-star recommendation.

The review from OperaOnline is piffle. Britten's War Requiem is a great and moving piece of music, a masterpiece, full of wonderful melody which lodges in the mind as much as anything by Puccini or Rachmaninov. As performed here by the composer and his original forces (more or less- Vishnevskaya was not allowed to travel to Britain for the premiere) it is a set for every true music lover to cherish.
As for that review, I don't care whether it's from Opera Online or not, it's pig-headedly wrong. Take no notice. It just demonstrates that online reviews are not to be trusted: any old curmudgeon with peculiar personal prejudices can go online and misinform at will. I write professionally for Fanfare Magazine and I reckon this set is a must. You probably have it already anyway, as it has been constantly available in one form or another for over 40 years, a fact that speaks volumes.

PS Since posting the above, I have checked out OperaOnline's other reviews, and the site where they initially appear. A lack of bylines suggests there are a number of people reviewing for the site, but I don't know how many. They/he/she seems to know their onions when it comes to the mainstream operatic repertoire- although one person's opinion is simply that, period. Nevertheless, someone from OperaOnline who posts their reviews here is allergic to 20th century music, a silly blanket condemnation of a body of music more diverse than that of any previous period in history. Not only to Britten: their peculiar antipathies go as far back as Janacek.
As G. Yang says, why go public to display yoiur ignorance? (Unless, of course, you choose to remain anonymous.)

This is the best recording of the War Requiem by far. For Britten, a life-long pacifist, this was his most explicit anti-war statement. And it is packed with symbolism, from the poems by Wilfred Owen ("My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity ..."), to the pick of soloists, a German (Fischer-Dieskau), an Englishman (Pears) and a Russian (Vishnevskaya - not at the first performance), to its premier in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962. The composer's response to the devastation of war, the bombings of Coventry itself, London, Dresden, Berlin, the siege at Leningrad (St. Petersburg), etc...

One reviewer referred to the work as "grating and discordant", as well it should be. In Owen's words, "Only the monstrous anger of the guns." It is about the horrors of war after all ! Apparently he or she didn't bother to listen to the last section of the Libera me, "Let us sleep now", a disturbingly quiet, gentle, and ironic end to suffering.

Conducted by the composer, this is the War Requiem to have if you want to get to the heart and ache of this piece. The London Symphony Orchestra play superbly, and the soloists are committed and in superb voice, even Pears who more often disappoints. The Decca/London recording, the first of this work, although dating from 1963, is clear and bright. And it can now be purchased at a much reduced price.

Hickox's interpretation with the same LSO (Chandos), with a superb cast of soloists (Harper, Langridge and Shirley-Quirk), is rightly admired but it lacks the immediacy of this recording. It may have better sonics but it misses the historic, emotional, context of Britten's effort. Both are excellent versions. A toss up.

This recording is a 'must' addition for anyone's collection of great 20th century music. It is conducted by the composer, Benjamin Britten, and is as moving as when the War Requiem was first heard more than 45 years ago. And the quality of the London recording captures the powerful and huge ensemble of soloists, musicians and choirs that came together for this historic recording. Listen and weep for the 'the pity of war.'

This is a wonderful recording indeed (though I too have reservations about Vishnevskaya's contribution).

But: I would avoid downloading it in MP3 form, since (most unusual for Amazon) the tracks do not join smoothly: when one track should smoothly connect with the next, you can almost always hear a little burp (for want of a better word) when the new track is starting. This can be annoying.

This is a great performance of the Requiem, probably the finest piece of its kind written during the 20th Century. In that it's conducted by Britten with singers of his choice makes it the definitive performance of this work.

What's particularly wonderful are the rehearsal tapes, which take up much of the second disc. It's a rare privilege to hear the composer tell the performers exactly what he wants from the music. Britten clearly knew what he wanted and conveyed that to the performers with grace and humor.

Highly recommended!!!!

Britten's premiere recording of his masterpiece, the War Requiem, is an acknowledged classic, but in the 47 years since we've had quite lot of choice among other recordings. Here's a rundown of the versions I know. I think they are all the major ones:

The greatest enthusiastic is deserved for Richard Hickox's 1991 War Requiem on Chandos, the best studio version in the decades after the composer's recording. The conducting is powerful and heartfelt, the chorus exemplary, the soloists -- Philip Langridge, John Shirley-Quirk, and Heahter Harper -- all distinguished Britten performers who were closely associated with him; I'm extremely glad they got the chance to set down their performances, which run second only to the Decca soloists'.

Turning briefly to other competitors, John Eliot Gardiner's set on DG, recorded with a German orchestra and his own Monteverdi Choir, has ugly, shrill sonics and soloists not well attuned to the pathos of Owen's poetry. Simon Rattle on EMI is much better but feels underplayed to me, despite excellent forces all around. Robert Tear and Thomas Allen are outstanding vocalists, and they enunciate the poetry better than anyone else, but Rattle's gentle, elegiac tone makes for little drama. I suppose he eschewed outright anguish on purpose.

Kurt 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. Finally, 2008 saw a German performance under the veteran but ordinary Helmut Rilling (Haenssler), who can't quite rise to the occasion. Even so, his male soloists, Christian Gerhaher and James Taylor, are attractive, one of the most lyrical pairings on disc. Tayor's light tenor manages to be quite poignant at times. Also worth noting are the excellent chorus and vivid SACD sound. No rival version can compete sonically. If only Rilling were more menacing and less tame in places.

This narrows the choice down to Britten and Hickox, 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 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.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is English church music with a twist. When in 1961 he was commissioned to write music for the rededication of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, he conceived the unique idea of combining war poems of Wilfred Owen with the Latin Mass for the Dead. Both Owen (who was killed in action in the last week of World War I) and Britten were pacifists trying to make a statement. The interspersed texts work so well together, and the music and singing are so effective, as to make the work a heart-felt, powerful statement against the horridness of war, and a call to Christian pity, love and peace.

The composition calls for tenor and baritone singing the war poems, with chamber orchestra; soprano and chorus singing the liturgical parts, with full orchestra; and a boys' choir and organ, so placed as to sound far away and ethereal. The score itself is twentieth century music, original, moving and dramatic.

This re-issue of the opus includes 50 minutes of rehearsals, recorded without Britten's knowledge. Fascinating in themselves, these tracks more significantly tell us what the composer-conductor wanted to accomplish as he directed the performers. As Donald Mitchell has it in the enclosed booklet, Britten's intent - one "fundamental to the original concept and interpretation of the work" - was to "shock audiences out of a passive acceptance of the annihilation of war." Britten urges, "Lots of words - think what they mean." In the Dies Irae he asks the chorus to sound terrified; in the Sanctus he demands a confused sound - "Make it sound like a crowd coming at you." He wants the boys' choir to sing more ethereally - "Imagine yourselves in heaven, a long way away from here."

Tenor Peter Pears and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing the parts of soldiers on opposite sides of the war. In their careers, both earned high praise for proficient performances, and no more needs to be said here. Of the three soloists, the one who caught my attention most was soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. When I first heard her singing 'Liber scriptus proferetur' (part of the Dies Irae), her piercing voice gave me a slight jolt, unexpected as it was. But soon I realized that her intensity reflected the meaning of the words: she was singing of the judgment of world, when "nothing will remain unavenged." It certainly fitted with what Britten had in mind. In the rehearsals we hear him repeatedly saying, "It's terrific, it's marvelous." At another point he says, "I'm moved by her singing." He addresses one of her concerns by telling her, "But you can do it, most sopranos can't." In fact, he had written the soprano parts especially for her, knowing the range and quality of her voice beforehand. In the 'Lacrimosa' her singing is indeed so beautiful it pierces to the heart.

There are several versions of Britten's War Requiem to choose from, but there is little reason not to go for this one. It is authoritatively interpreted by the composer himself, performed by first class musicians and singers, and reproduced in good stereo sound; add to all that the important rehearsal tracks. A work of substance, I have no hesitation giving it the highest recommendation.

Whoever "OperaOnlineUs" may be, she/he is a total idiot and completely have no taste of 20th Century music!---which by itself is not a terrible defect of a human being, but, why came here and wrote something to show your ignorance?

they are on my list for my next order from amazon. i had this on vinyl back in those days, and *loved* it. it is a beautiful and moving work. the one star review (which occasioned me posting this) is plain *wrong*. if britten is his/her idea of noisy music, he/she is missing a lot of very good music out there. exhibiting a closed mind in public *should* be pretty embarrassing. unfortunately, it often isn/t.