Robert Spano leads his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a stirring performance of Britten's towering masterpiece. Broadcast live April 30, 2014 at 7 p.m. Central; 8 p.m. Eastern.
Hailed as "a phenomenon" who "pulls together the most intellectually enticing and emotionally gripping [performances] in New York" (The New Yorker), Robert Spano leads his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a stirring performance of Britten's towering masterpiece. The composer created this mammoth meditation against war by juxtaposing Latin texts from the Mass for the Dead with shocking depictions of battle by Wilfred Owen, a British poet who died in World War I.
Please note that tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has withdrawn from this performance due to illness. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall are grateful to Thomas Cooley for agreeing to perform on extremely short notice.
Performers
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Robert Spano, Music Director and Conductor Evelina Dobracheva, Soprano Thomas Cooley, Tenor Stephen Powell, Baritone Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus Norman Mackenzie, Director Brooklyn Youth Chorus Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Artistic Director
At a Glance
Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem in response to a commission to celebrate the consecration of St. Michael's Cathedral in Coventry, England. The original cathedral was destroyed by German bombing raids during World War II. The War Requiem received its world premiere at the cathedral on May 30, 1962.
A lifelong pacifist and a conscientious objector during World War II, Britten created a work that expressed his disdain for the conflict that led to the destruction of the cathedral. In the War Requiem, he juxtaposes the text of the Latin Mass for the Dead with poems by Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), an English officer killed in battle in World War I one week before the Armistice. Stripped of any romanticism or patriotic fervor, Owen's poems graphically depict the horrors of war. Indeed, Owen repeatedly portrays enemy soldiers as kindred spirits, innocent pawns in the hands of those who send them off to battle.
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