Prom 47 - 21.08.14: War Requiem, CBSO, Gritton / Spence / Müller-Brachmann / Nelsons

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thursday, 21 August
7.30 p.m. – c. 9.15 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Britten: War Requiem, Op 66 (95 mins)

Susan Gritton, soprano
Toby Spence, tenor
Hanno Müller-Brachmann, baritone

BBC Proms Youth Choir
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor

Marking the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1, a Proms performance of the greatest musical piece of anti-war polemic ever composed. Britten's magisterial oratorio was first heard in 1962, performed in a Coventry Cathedral newly-opened after its medieval predecessor had been destroyed by the bombs of WW2. Subtly interleaving the Latin text of the Requiem Mass with the war poems of Wilfred Owen, the 'War Requiem' stands as both one of Britten's most passionate and heartfelt works and a devastating portrayal of what Owen called 'the pity of War'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Potentially a great Prom?

[Nick Armstrong]

Potentially a great Prom?

Yes.... especially hearing that piece in that space

[mercia]

given its name, do you think the BBC Proms Youth Choir is a one-off, one-performance group ?

oops - apparently not http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/archive/s...-youth-choir/1

[Mary Chambers]

I hope they have boys for the boys' choir, and not teenage girls as in the 50th anniversary performance. That annoyed me, and it's happening more and more. So wrong. The boys are a sort of parallel to the tenor and baritone soloists who sing the Owen poems.

[DracoM]

Tut, tut, Mary!! I can hear it being furiously typed already: "Boys and girls singing are totally interchangeable, you can't tell the difference, you're just prejudiced, and anyway does it matter...."
.........yawn.

[Mary Chambers]

Tut, tut, Mary!! I can hear it being furiously typed already: "Boys and girls singing are totally interchangeable, you can't tell the difference, you're just prejudiced, and anyway does it matter...."
.........yawn.

It's in the score! It matters

Not sure whether you are getting at me or just anticipating what others will say.....I hope the latter.

[DracoM]

Yes, indeed, I know it's in the score, and I applaud every word you wrote.
I was merely anticipating what I know might be the reaction in 'other quarters'!!

[Mary Chambers]

Yes, indeed, I know it's in the score, and I applaud every word you wrote.
I was merely anticipating what I know might be the reaction in 'other quarters'!!

I thought so.

Incidentally, I wonder if girls count as 'trebles'. I was looking at other Britten scores and see that he asks for a boys' choir in Spring Symphony, but for the solo fairies in Midsummer Night's Dream my vocal score says 'trebles'. The chorus fairies can be trebles or sopranos.

[mercia]

was the Ceremony of Carols written for a ladies choir (or first performed by such) ?

[Mary Chambers]

was the Ceremony of Carols written for a ladies choir (or first performed by such) ?

There's a letter from Peter Pears written at the time of its composition that says it's for women's voices, and the first (incomplete) performance was by women. The first recording was by the Morriston Boys' Choir.

Britten was in fact fairly liberal about who sang what. He liked to get his work performed, and therefore allowed for a contralto to sing Oberon if no counter-tenor was available, and sanctioned the SATB version of Ceremony of Carols. I think War Requiem, though, has particular resonances and needs boys. Similarly I am not at all happy when a girl sings Miles in Turn of the Screw, which has happened occasionally. I wonder what he'd have thought of that?

[mercia]

SATB version of Ceremony of Carols

crumbs, I didn't know there was one. Has it been recorded like that ?

[DracoM]

Miles sung by a GIRL??? Crikey. Changes the entire opera's trajectory - particularly in the theatre.

[Mary Chambers]

Miles sung by a GIRL??? Crikey. Changes the entire opera's trajectory - particularly in the theatre.

It's happened in America, though I think it was a student performance. I think I read of a similar one in Scotland. Not a good idea at all.

Mercia - I'm really not sure whether the SATB version of Ceremony of Carols has been recorded. I know people who've sung it.

[Oldcrofter]

SATB versions Ceremony of Carols - there are two or three on YouTube - easy to find (just for info - I'm not saying they're good, bad or indifferent so please don't launch into apoplectic rage )

And info. re the score is here:

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/a-ceremony-of-carols-op-28-sheet-music/4163152