ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester / Wiener Singakademie / Alsop

A sign of reconciliation and a memorial against war: Benjamin Britten's epochal »War Requiem« is both. It was premiered in Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 1962. In 1940, Nazi Germany carried out a bombing raid on the city, 150 kilometres north-west of London, which claimed many victims and reduced Coventry to rubble. Britten, who had refused to serve in the armed forces, commemorated the victims of the war with his composition. Like Johann Sebastian Bach in his Passions, he interwove different levels of text. In addition to the liturgical words of the requiem mass, poems by Wilfred Owens serve as the basis. The British poet was himself killed in action in the final days of the First World War. The score is preceded by the following of his verses: »My theme is war and the suffering of war / Poetry lies in suffering ... / All a poet can do today is: warn.«

Poignant musical memorial with a large cast
For the premiere of the »War Requiem«, which was conducted by the conductor himself, singers from Russia, England and Germany were deliberately invited in order to send a signal of reconciliation. In addition to the soloists, two choirs and an orchestra make up the opulent cast of this gripping work. Despite this opulence, it is rather contemplative in tone in large parts. Marin Alsop, former chief conductor and now honorary conductor, leads the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Singakademie and the Vienna Boys' Choir in this seventh performance at the Wiener Konzerthaus, as well as a fabulous cast of singers that includes portrait artist Andrè Schuen alongside Eleanor Lyons and Paul Appleby.