A Fiercely Human Requiem

“Since I believe that there is in every man the spirit of God, I cannot destroy, and feel it is my duty to avoid helping to destroy as far as I am able, human life”. In this way the young Benjamin Britten declared his view before the British conscientious objector’s tribunal in 1942. Exiled since 1939 in the United States, he tried to avoid any collaboration with the world conflict. In 1962, the consecration of the new Coventry cathedral, ruined by German bombs, would provide him with the opportunity to show the world the pointlessness of the war and the necessity for reconciliation.

The Youth Orchestra of Andalusia (Orquesta Joven de Andalucía) and the Youth Chorus of Andalusia (Joven Coro de Andalucía) conducted by Álvaro Albiach perform War Requiem. This is a musical monument to suffering and fraternity in which Catholic liturgy dialogues with verses of the poet Wilfred Owen who died in combat in 1918. Britten deploys an imposing vocal and instrumental effect to portray, in music, the fear, longings and hopes of the human being, from intimate pleas to a frenzied terror. An excellent occasion to immerse oneself in this seminal composition of the of the 20th century, performed by a new generation of top-level musicians. A requiem for life.

Benjamin Britten, War Requiem, op. 66