We wish Britten’s War Requiem didn’t feel so relevant.  This music emerged from a world that was rebuilding after the harrowing trauma of World War II.  Today’s world is still torn by conflict and cruelty.  It’s easy to feel powerless, to feel numb in the face of suffering.  But Britten has given us music to make us think and help us heal.

You can hear the War Requiem as a lament.  You can hear it as a fierce call for peace.  Hope and consolation rub shoulders with violence and despair as Britten weaves the traditional Requiem texts with the poetry of Wilfred Owen, written in the trenches of World War I.  The music veers between intimacy, with tenor and baritone soloists giving voice to young men destroyed by war, and an almost brutal magnificence with more than a hint of Verdi.