CBSO performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral on Remembrance Day.
The CBSO are performing Britten's War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral on Wednesday 11 November, a date that carries its own weight: Remembrance Day. It's a return to the very place where the piece had its world premiere back in 1962, when the new cathedral was consecrated beside the ruins of the medieval one, bombed during the war. There's a particular kind of gravity to hearing this work in that building, and doing it on this particular day only adds to it.
For those who haven't come across it, War Requiem is Britten's personal, forceful response to a century of violence. A lifelong pacifist who spent much of the Second World War in America as a conscientious objector, Britten was commissioned to write it in 1961, after the success of Peter Grimes and Gloriana. He weaves the Latin Requiem Mass together with the anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action just one week before the 1918 armistice. It's a profoundly moving and sometimes savage indictment of war, and it doesn't pull its punches.
The scale of the thing is part of the experience. It calls for huge forces: a symphony orchestra, a chamber orchestra, a full chorus, a children's choir and three soloists—traditionally an English tenor, a German baritone and a soprano. They all come together in the final bar in a plea for shared humanity and peace. One of the most famous moments is the setting of Owen's 'Strange Meeting', where the baritone sings 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend'.
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It's a single-act performance with no interval, running about an hour and a half. Doors open at 6:30pm, with the music starting at 7:30pm and last entry at 7:20pm. Tickets are £27.50 to £53, with reduced prices for students, under-18s and eligible benefit recipients.
