麻豆约拍

Donald Macleod explores Britten鈥檚 War Requiem and the composer鈥檚 friendship with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

The War Requiem had actually been foreshadowed twice before. After the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1947, the writer Ronald Duncan had suggested to Britten that they collaborate on an oratorio, a piece that was to be called Mea Culpa. But there were problems over the commissioning of the piece and the idea foundered . The next year, following the death of Gandhi, Britten wrote to a friend saying how this had been a great shock to someone with his convictions and he was 鈥渄etermined to commemorate this occasion in, possibly, some form of Requiem to his honour. When I shall complete this piece I cannot say.鈥� So when the Coventry arts committee approached him in the autumn of 1958, Britten was already primed.

The success of the Requiem made Britten a national figure as never before.

Nocturnal after John Dowland
Sean Shibe, guitar

War Requiem, Requiem aeternam
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Choir of Eltham College
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

War Requiem, Sanctus
Toby Spence, tenor
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor

Symphony for cello and orchestra
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello
English Chamber Orchestra
Benjamin Britten, conductor

Third Suite for Cello
Matthew Barley, cello

Death in Venice (excerpt)
Philip Langridge, tenor
City of London Sinfonia
麻豆约拍 Singers
Richard Hickox, conductor

String Quartet No.3
Endellion String Quartet