War Requiem [Original recording remastered, Import]

Britten's reading is raw, transparent, vicious, thunderous, and very original. Especially nice is to actually understand the words of the two male soloists without having to refer to the booklet. His soloists are strong and clear, his choruses are tip-top perfect, the LSO is divine. It's hard to say something bad about this performance, except perhaps that Vishnevskaya can be slightly grating in certain sections.
In a lot of ways I like Robert Shaw's more "glossed" "mainstream" performance, and that performance also has a lot of punch behind it, especially the purely orchestra/chorus sections. Britten's of course, is definitive. It certainly is the strongest case to convince you of the effectiveness of the integrated texts. In the Shaw version you can hardly make English text from latin text because of the thickness of voice of tenor and bass.
So get this and enjoy the music, as well as the very revealing and funny rehearsals tagged on at the end of disc 2. This is a safe five-star recommendation.

This is the best recording of the War Requiem by far. For Britten, a life-long pacifist, this was his most explicit anti-war statement. And it is packed with symbolism, from the poems by Wilfred Owen ("My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity ..."), to the pick of soloists, a German (Fischer-Dieskau), an Englishman (Pears) and a Russian (Vishnevskaya - not at the first performance), to its premier in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962. The composer's response to the devastation of war, the bombings of Coventry itself, London, Dresden, Berlin, the siege at Leningrad (St. Petersburg), etc...

One reviewer referred to the work as "grating and discordant", as well it should be. In Owen's words, "Only the monstrous anger of the guns." It is about the horrors of war after all ! Apparently he or she didn't bother to listen to the last section of the Libera me, "Let us sleep now", a disturbingly quiet, gentle, and ironic end to suffering.

Conducted by the composer, this is the War Requiem to have if you want to get to the heart and ache of this piece. The London Symphony Orchestra play superbly, and the soloists are committed and in superb voice, even Pears who more often disappoints. The Decca/London recording, the first of this work, although dating from 1963, is clear and bright. And it can now be purchased at a much reduced price.

Hickox's interpretation with the same LSO (Chandos), with a superb cast of soloists (Harper, Langridge and Shirley-Quirk), is rightly admired but it lacks the immediacy of this recording. It may have better sonics but it misses the historic, emotional, context of Britten's effort. Both are excellent versions. A toss up.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is English church music with a twist. When in 1961 he was commissioned to write music for the rededication of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, he conceived the unique idea of combining war poems of Wilfred Owen with the Latin Mass for the Dead. Both Owen (who was killed in action in the last week of World War I) and Britten were pacifists trying to make a statement. The interspersed texts work so well together, and the music and singing are so effective, as to make the work a heart-felt, powerful statement against the horridness of war, and a call to Christian pity, love and peace.

The composition calls for tenor and baritone singing the war poems, with chamber orchestra; soprano and chorus singing the liturgical parts, with full orchestra; and a boys' choir and organ, so placed as to sound far away and ethereal. The score itself is twentieth century music, original, moving and dramatic.

This re-issue of the opus includes 50 minutes of rehearsals, recorded without Britten's knowledge. Fascinating in themselves, these tracks more significantly tell us what the composer-conductor wanted to accomplish as he directed the performers. As Donald Mitchell has it in the enclosed booklet, Britten's intent - one "fundamental to the original concept and interpretation of the work" - was to "shock audiences out of a passive acceptance of the annihilation of war." Britten urges, "Lots of words - think what they mean." In the Dies Irae he asks the chorus to sound terrified; in the Sanctus he demands a confused sound - "Make it sound like a crowd coming at you." He wants the boys' choir to sing more ethereally - "Imagine yourselves in heaven, a long way away from here."

Tenor Peter Pears and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing the parts of soldiers on opposite sides of the war. In their careers, both earned high praise for proficient performances, and no more needs to be said here. Of the three soloists, the one who caught my attention most was soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. When I first heard her singing 'Liber scriptus proferetur' (part of the Dies Irae), her piercing voice gave me a slight jolt, unexpected as it was. But soon I realized that her intensity reflected the meaning of the words: she was singing of the judgment of the world, when "nothing will remain unavenged." It certainly fitted Britten's purpose. In the rehearsals we hear him repeatedly saying, "It's terrific, it's marvelous." At another point he says, "I'm moved by her singing." He addresses one of her concerns by telling her, "But you can do it, most sopranos can't." In fact, he had written the soprano parts specially for her, knowing beforehand the range and quality of her voice. In the 'Lacrimosa' her singing is indeed so beautiful it pierces to the heart.

There are several versions of Britten's War Requiem to choose from, but there is little reason not to go for this one. It is authoritatively interpreted by the composer himself, performed by first class musicians and singers, and reproduced in good stereo sound; add to all that the important rehearsal tracks. A work of substance, I have no hesitation giving it the highest recommendation.