Britten - War Requiem / Vishnievskaya · Pears · Fischer-Dieskau · LSO · Britten

Benjamin Britten (Artist), Peter Pears (Artist), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Artist), Melos Ensemble of London (Artist), London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• SPARS Code: AAD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B0000041Q5
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,935 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Requiem aeternam. Requ

2. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Requiem aeternam. What

3. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Dies irae

4. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Bugles sang

5. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Liber scrip

6. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Out there,

7. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Recordate J

8. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Be slowly l

9. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Dies irae

10. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Dies irae. Lacrimosa d

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Sanctus. Sanctus, sanc

2. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Sanctus. After the bla

3. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Agnus Dei. One ever ha

4. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Libera me. Libera me,

5. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Libera me. It seemed t

6. War Requiem, for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra & organ, Op. 66: Libera me. Let us slee

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

The composer's 1963 recording remains, after 35 years, the preferred account, unequaled in its scope and emotional intensity. It brings together the three soloists for whom the work was written, chosen not only because of their artistry but because they represented three of the nations most deeply scarred by World War II--the Soviet Union, England, and Germany. Benjamin Britten holds the vast forces together, and the superbly engineered recording captures with chilling exactitude the power and the nuance of his ardent, visionary interpretation. --Ted Libbey

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best it will ever be, June 4, 2000

By	Mark Swinton (York, UK) - See all my reviews

Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" is one of the most well-known choral works to emerge from Britain in this last century, although it is not a true Requiem in that it combines the Latin Mass for the Dead with excerpts from the celebrated poetry of the tragic First World War victim Wilfred Owen. The texts go hand in hand throughout the piece, and through his music Britten touches a nerve like no other composer - he captures in great profundity the horrors of war, both subtle and gross.

There are many fine recordings of the work available, but this one is simply beyond comparison. The finest musicians of the day are guided fastidiously through the challenging score by Britten himself. What results is a powerful rendition, chilling and moving in all the right ways. I must single out one moment in particular: the "Agnus Dei," which sets a sorrowful ground bass-like figure underneath a melting tenor solo (using as text the poem "One ever hangs"). The orchestra and choir are magically soft throughout this track, but more magical still is the incomparable singing of Peter Pears. It is one of those rare moments in which tears and heart-warming joy can freely mingle, and only a stony heart would not feel such emotions upon listening to it.

This release is made all the more remarkable for the inclusion of a "making-of" section, in the form of several tracks taped during the rehearsal sessions. This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to hear Britten's voice: he gives out explicit instructions, and comes across as insistent and stern (but still capable of making the odd joke!). Apparently, when Britten found out about it he was not best pleased and I doubt that he would approve of the release of this material if he were alive today. Nonetheless, whilst he was often making recordings of other music, he rarely recorded his own, and ultimately it was a fine decision of the producer to capture this piece of work in progress. There is a saying that composers are not always the best interpreters of their own music; from this recording, it's clear that such an adage did not apply to Benjamin Britten. Despite all this, I believe that whether or not you want to listen to it is up to you - in a way, some of the thrill and magic is taken out of the main recording if you listen to it as it was in preparation.

In any case, whether you seek an introduction to this landmark composition or are looking for a good rendition on CD, this version is the only one to go for, in my honest opinion. And thanks to Decca's best available technology, the sound quality is astonishingly pristine.

This is most definitely essential listening...

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Britten's War Requiem and Silence, January 21, 2000

By	James D. Eret (San Diego) - See all my reviews

As a poet and Veteran of the conflict in Vietnam,I was interested in the war poems of Wilfred Owen, a poet of WWI who was killed just a few days before the end of that war. Owen's poems moved me to tears and utter silence. Then I listened to War Requiem by Britten and Owen's poetry soared to new heights. The orginal recording on CD seems the best of many good versions. It is pretty hard to go wrong with this material. The raging passions of war are evoked, the brutality and madness, the noise, the smoke, the horror, and the searching for a way to make meaning out of chaos, a way to make friends of all enemies. That Britten was a conscientious objector during WWII comes as no surprise. There is only so much that can be expressed by words or music about what war does to the body, to the soul, and Britten comes so close to that expression, with music that augments the Owen poetry of despair and of hope, that somehow through a process we hardly have a name for, we will fight no more. Anyone feeling that war is glamorous and noble should listen to Britten's War Requiem;maybe they won't change their minds about conflict with their fellow human beings, but just maybe they might have second thoughts, that every life is precious, that we, as a global community, have more in common than differences. After each listening of this CD, I am stunned to silence. There is Britten's and Owen's Visions, and I am left with hope that we may live in peace.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A collaboration between the living and the dead., March 26, 2006

By	C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As the armed forces of the United States struggles in Iraq, this work of genius should be re-discovered. I agree with all the other reviewers who speak of Britten's considerable musical talent. But I wish to comment on the fact that this work is a collaboration between a living composer and a deceased poet. Benjamin Britten selected 9 angry war poems by Wilfred Owen, and integrated these poems into the Latin Mass for the Dead. The poems are strategically integrated with both the instrumentation and the Latin mass.

When we hear "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?" we know we are in for some confrontational lyrics and music.

Britten is masterful in bringing to life the personification of Death in the passages "Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death...We've sniff'd the green thick odour of his breath...He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed schrapnel. We chorused when he sang aloft...We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe."

The terrible majesty of a war machine is captured in the music and poetry in the passages: "Be slowly lifted up thus long black arm. Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse, reach at that arrogance which needs thy harm and beat it down before its sins grow worse; but when thy spell be cast complete and whole, may God curse thee and cut thee from our soul."

The sense of tragedy increases in the music and lyrics as we hear about a man, drifting in and out of consciousness on the journey to become a corpse: "Move him, move him into the sun - gently its touch awoke him once. At home, whisp'ring of fields unsown, always it woke him, woke him even in France."

And then we come to Owen's masterpiece: "So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, and took the fire with him, and a knife, and as they sojourned both of them together, Issac the first-born spake and said, 'My Father, Behold the preparations, fire and iron, but where the lamb for this burnt offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps and builded parapets and trenches there, and stretched forth the knife to slay his son. When lo! An Angel called out of heaven, saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad! Neither do anything to him. Behold, a ram caught in a thickett by its horns; offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. But the old man would not so, but slew his son - and half the seed of Europe, one by one, and half the seed of Europe, one by one."

If you read the lyrics while listening, you may find, like me, that this degree of tragic stupidity and needless horror is difficult to fully absorb. Britten had to collaborate with a deceased but still angry vibrant voice in this poem by Wilfred Owen. The music must allow the pain and sadness and bitter irony of the poem to remain intact - which it does - certainly revealing Britten's considerable genius.

But Britten does not leave us in this state, but moves toward resolution, not only in the musical composition and the mass, but also in the final poem where a soul meets a soul with "I am the enemy you killed, my friend. I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed. I parried; but my hands were loath and cold, Let us sleep now."

Enough said. Go listen.