Synopsis
On today’s date in 1962, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus, and orchestra, had its premiere performance at Coventry Cathedral in England. The Cathedral had been virtually destroyed in World War II bombing, and Britten’s big choral work was commissioned to celebrate its restoration and reconsecration.
Britten was a committed pacifist, and his War Requiem text combines poems by Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I, with the traditional Latin text of the Mass for the Dead. For the premiere, Britten requested soloists representing nations who had fought during World War II.
With Britten’s life-time partner, tenor Peter Pears, representing England, the plan was to have a German baritone, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and a Russian soprano, Galina Vishnevskaya, for the 1962 premiere. As a young man, Fischer-Dieskau had been drafted into the German army, and had been a prisoner of war, but was eager to participate. Unfortunately, the Soviet authorities wouldn’t issue a visa for soprano Vishnevskaya to sing in the new Britten piece. “How can you, a Soviet woman, stand next to a German and an Englishman and perform such a political work,” they told her. British soprano Heather Harper substituted for her.
For many, Britten’s War Requiem is his masterpiece, and shortly after its premiere, Britten wrote to his sister, “The idea did come off, I think … I hope it will make people think a bit.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): War Requiem; soloists; choirs; BBC Scottish Symphony; Martyn Brabbins, conductor; Naxos 8.553558
On This Day
Births
1883 - Italian opera composer Riccardo Zandonai, in Sacco, Trentino
1932 - American composer Pauline Oliveros, in Houston, Texas
1953 - American composer Anne LeBaron, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Deaths
1971 - French composer and organist Marcel Dupré, 85, in Meudon
Premieres
1846 - Lortzing: opera Der Waffenschmied (The Armorer), in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien
1866 - Smetana: The Bartered Bride (first version) in Prague at the Provisional Theater
1923 - Hanson: Symphony No. 1 (Nordic), in Rome, composer conducting
1927 - Stravinsky: opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris (in concert performance; first staged performance took place in Berlin on Feb. 25, 1928)
1938 - Piston: ballet The Incredible Flutist, in Boston
1962 - Britten: oratorio War Requiem, in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in England
1991 - Harrison Birtwistle: opera Gawain in London at the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Elgar Howarth conducting
1995 - Alla Pavlova: Symphony No. 1 (Farewell Russian), in Moscow at the Concert Hall of the Union of Russian Composers, by the Russian Philharmonia, Konstantin Krimets, conducting
Others
1723 - Bach’s first cantata performance in Leipzig (Cantata No. 75, Die Elenden Sollen Essen), presented at St. Nicolai Church, the day before his official induction as Cantor in that city
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
