Britten's War Requiem CBSO/Gardner St Paul's Cathedral June 25 2013

[Petrushka]

Duration: 2 hours
First broadcast:Tuesday 25 June 2013 Live from St Paul's Cathedral

Presented by Martin Handley

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten this year, Edward Gardner conducts a performance of one his most powerful works.

Britten: War Requiem

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Choristers of St Paul's,
CBSO Chorus

Evelina Dobraceva(soprano)
Toby Spence (tenor)
Russell Braun (baritone)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Looking forward to this with some trepidation wondering how the engineers will cope with the most challenging acoustic on earth (isn't it?). Mind, last week's Choral Evensong from there was excellent so fingers crossed.

Are we getting too much of the War Requiem in this Britten anniversary year? Should it be heard more sparingly making each performance a special event?

[amateur51]

Duration: 2 hours
First broadcast:Tuesday 25 June 2013 Live from St Paul's Cathedral

Presented by Martin Handley

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten this year, Edward Gardner conducts a performance of one his most powerful works.

Britten: War Requiem

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Choristers of St Paul's,
CBSO Chorus

Evelina Dobraceva(soprano)
Toby Spence (tenor)
Russell Braun (baritone)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yjzfw

[Mary Chambers]

Are we getting too much of the War Requiem in this Britten anniversary year? Should it be heard more sparingly making each performance a special event?

Yes, though each performance still tends to be a special event, particularly perhaps for the performers.

[BBMmk2]

Im particularly looking forward to this performance, as I do rather like the way Edward conducts Britten's music. I dont iknow what mary Chambers thinks, about this.

[Mary Chambers]

Im particularly looking forward to this performance, as I do rather like the way Edward conducts Britten's music. I dont iknow what mary Chambers thinks, about this.

Edward Gardner is fine, though I think that conducting in St Paul's must be an absolute nightmare. It will probably sound better on the radio than it does in the building - though Britten preferred a reverberant acoustic for it, I'd be surprised if he liked it as reverberant as St Paul's.

I'm quite surprised that Toby Spence is doing this the night after his Gloriana performance. He's certainly getting back into the mainstream.

[Petrushka]

I greatly enjoyed this and pleased to say that the engineers coped very well indeed with the difficult acoustic. I went to a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in St Paul's some years ago (the Andrew Davis one on DVD) and couldn't hear a thing, literally nothing! I swore never to go there again for a concert and never have though I have been for a service (the one a couple of days after Sept 11 2001).

The male soloists were fine, Russell Braun particularly so I thought, and the chorus were magnificent. The soprano lacked the heft to cut through the texture but then, no-one can better Vishnevskya in this.

Well done to all concerned for as moving a performance as we're likely to get in this Britten Centenary year.

[BBMmk2]

Did the reverberation come over on the radio at all?

[Mary Chambers]

Did the reverberation come over on the radio at all?

It wasn't noticeable to me, but I think the sound we heard was probably very different from what was heard in the building. My impressions were - choirs and orchestra very good, soprano rather shrill and uncertain, tenor (Toby Spence again!) very strong but rather unvaried, baritone so-so. These impressions might be quite wrong. Ending very good, and a nice long silence after.

I was delighted to hear a boys' choir rather than Birmingham's teenage girls, fine singers though they were - though I'd have liked to sing it when I was a teenage girl. It didn't exist then, of course, and I'm pretty certain girls wouldn't have been allowed near it in BB's lifetime!