Britten's War Requiem

[teamsaint]

Anybody got anything to say about the LSO /Noseda live recording that came out after the last contribution to this thread.
I’ve been listening on Spotify, and enjoying pretty much everything about it.
( it ought to be good with the line up, TBF).

I’d be interested in thoughts from those with wider experience though.

[underthecountertenor]

Anybody got anything to say about the LSO /Noseda live recording that came out after the last contribution to this thread.
I’ve been listening on Spotify, and enjoying pretty much everything about it.
( it ought to be good with the line up, TBF).

I’d be interested in thoughts from those with wider experience though.

I’m deterred from it by the presence of Bostridge. Of recent recordings, it’s the McCreesh that does it for me.

[BBMmk2]

I’m deterred from it by the presence of Bostridge. Of recent recordings, it’s the McCreesh that does it for me.

Anyone heard Mariss Jansons's recording?

[Stanfordian]

Anyone heard Mariss Jansons's recording?

In 2013 was at one of those actual Philharmonie, Munich concerts of the Jansons 'War Requiem' that was being recorded for BR Klassik. With soloists Emily Magee (soprano), Mark Padmore (tenor) and Christian Gerhaher (baritone) it was a remarkably moving evening!

[HighlandDougie]

Anyone heard Mariss Jansons's recording?

Yes - I enthused about Maestro Yawnson's 'War Requiem' when it appeared - and continue to think it very fine. I'm hopelessly biased in its favour as Christian Gerhaher can do little wrong in my eyes. I also much like the McCreesh (and an off-air recording of Semyon Bychkov's BBC performance).

[BBMmk2]

In 2013 was at one of those actual Philharmonie, Munich concerts of the Jansons 'War Requiem' that was being recorded for BR Klassik. With soloists Emily Magee (soprano), Mark Padmore (tenor) and Christian Gerhaher (baritone) it was a remarkably moving evening!

I don't think Britten's War Requiem should be an occaisional work to listen to, although normally I would only hear this ion Remembrance Sunday. On this occasion though, I will here it apart from that.

Yes - I enthused about Maestro Yawnson's 'War Requiem' when it appeared - and continue to think it very fine. I'm hopelessly biased in its favour as Christian Gerhaher can do little wrong in my eyes. I also much like the McCreesh (and an off-air recording of Semyon Bychkov's BBC performance).

I know mcCreesh's performance and yes quite agree but that ione by SB, I must've missed out on.

[teamsaint]

Giving the Hickox a spin tonight, which comes well recommended.

No takers for the Noseda yet ?

[Alison]

I recall very favourable concert reviews, Sainty, Noseda having taken over at short notice from Sir Colin Davis.

Somehow I doubt you’ll be disappointed and I feel an impulse purchase coming on meself!

[teamsaint]

I recall very favourable concert reviews, Sainty, Noseda having taken over at short notice from Sir Colin Davis.

Somehow I doubt you’ll be disappointed and I feel an impulse purchase coming on meself!

I really enjoyed it Alison. I Read a couple of reviews which kept negative comments to the Barbican acoustic, ( tempted to put a , but I won't).
Its on Spotty if you want a try before you buy.
Anyway, Bosto was excellent , IMO.

[BBMmk2]

Giving the Hickox a spin tonight, which comes well recommended.

No takers for the Noseda yet ?

Yes, this version is very good!

[LMcD]

Nobody seems to have mentioned the DVD with Erin Wall, Mark Padmore, Hanno Müller-Brachmann and the CBSO conducted by Andris Nelsons, recorded in Coventry Cathedral. I found the whole performance very moving. The lengthy silence at the end spoke volumes.

[BBMmk2]

Nobody seems to have mentioned the DVD with Erin Wall, Mark Padmore, Hanno Müller-Brachmann and the CBSO conducted by Andris Nelsons, recorded in Coventry Cathedral. I found the whole performance very moving. The lengthy silence at the end spoke volumes.

Thanks for the reminder! Yes! That is a great performance. Very appropriate I thought AS not for the applause to happen very appropriate.

[LMcD]

There's a moment during 'Strange Meeting' when the tenor turns to look at the baritone. The expression on his face is both breathtaking and heartbreaking.

[Once Was 4]

There's a moment during 'Strange Meeting' when the tenor turns to look at the baritone. The expression on his face is both breathtaking and heartbreaking.

May I be an iconoclast? I actively dislike a lot of Britten's music apart from Grimes, Budd, the YPG and a couple of other things. But I also regard the War Requiem as one of the greatest works of all time; I look back with hugely positive feelings (pride? satisfaction? - what?) on many performances that I have had to honour to take part in - as an extra with the RLPO and Sir Charles Groves, with the Opera North Orchestra and Sir Charles - also with Jane Glover - more anon, and on freelance dates and there is at least one more of these to come for me at Ripon Cathedral this coming November to commemorate the end of World War 1. The particular memory of Jane Glover was playing it at the Royal Festival Hall (ON orchestra and Huddersfield Choral Society) and Ms Glover announced at the beginning of the afternoon rehearsal "we are playing this work on the day that they are tearing down the Berlin Wall" which indeed was the case. A few tears were shed that evening.

So you did not want to know that but I ask "how do we square this with pacifism?" I am somebody whose whole existence is down to both wars (maternal grandmother a refugee from Belgium, maternal grandfather a survivor of the Battle of Loos, father a Canadian who came over to do his bit in the RCAF during WW2 - he made it back to Canada eventually, a lot of his friends did not. My grandmother used to get distressed at pacifist talk saying words to the effect of "why did Germany, a very powerful country with a huge army have the right to walk all over Belgium - a little country with a little army?" There is indeed a right wing theory that Britain should have kept out of World War 1 - if so the Germans would have not varied the Schlieffen Plan, would have soon beaten the French and been left unmolested to defeat the Russians - no Russian Revolution, no Iron Curtain, no Gulags, no Treaty of Versailles and no Second World War. As for Belgium and other little countries - forget them. Does anybody buy into that? And if you do not - what price pacifism? Should Britain have kept out of it? Sadly we cannot ask those whose lives were destroyed in bestial ways to answer that for us and, in the end, only they had the right to comment that it was all justified.

[LMcD]

Although the quality of the recording is not great, you can see Britten conducting the War Requiem on the BBC iPlayer. It's the 1964 performance from the RAH. The soloists are Heather Harper, Peter Pears and Thomas Hemsley. There's a useful introduction by Richard Baker (remember him?)