On November 9th I sang in Britten’s War Requiem for the first time in the Colston Hall, Bristol. (A first for my setting foot in the Colston Hall, too!) This was the second of a pair of performances with many of the same people taking part; the Bristol one also included the City of Bristol Choir and the Exultate Singers, conducted by David Ogden, and the Tewkesbury Abbey boys were replaced by rather older girls from local school and church choirs. People who sang in both concerts said that Tewkesbury Abbey as a venue had more atmosphere than Colston Hall, but that there was a benefit second time round from having already given one performance.
I went to rehearsals in Tewkesbury and then on the day in Bristol. I was ashamed to arrive late on the day (particularly when I used to arrive so punctually for Exultate Singers rehearsals), because there were no trains and the bus I should have taken was cancelled. I am losing patience with the weekend bus service between the two places (fortunately, I rarely have to use it).
Somehow I have managed to miss the War Requiem altogether, and was unfamiliar with its music. I still have reservations about Britten and can’t count myself as an unqualified fan. The part of the War Requiem that stayed with me most was the Agnus Dei, perhaps because it is so understated. (I imagine you could ask half a dozen people this question and get as many different answers).
Britten wanted the soloists at the first performance to be from the different combatant nations, and there is also a diversity in the musical references within the work. Apart from the nods to earlier Requiem settings and the gamelan style in the Sanctus, I heard echoes of many other 20th-century composers. The opening of the Libera Me, with its untuned percussion followed by a repeated sighing phrase, appears to be a tribute to the first of Berg’s Op. 6 pieces for orchestra, and part of the Lacrimosa took me straight to the final chorus of Mahler 8. Elsewhere, I thought I detected Stravinsky, Shostakovich and dare I say it Orff? I hope that I’ll get to perform the work some other time and explore this further.
When I wrote the above, I hadn’t read this article on the work by Robin Holloway. I am less dismissive of the War Requiem than he is though. Thanks to Jocelyn Lavin for the link.