Bach Choir, London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra & Benjamin Britten - Britten: War Requiem (1963/2013) [24/96]

“DECCA has used the most recent digital and Cedar technology to improve the original sound, under the overall supervision of veteran technician James Lock. This is one of the great performances of recording history.” Over half a century has passed since this classic DECCA recording was made in Kingsway Hall, London in January 1963. While the performance remains a benchmark, time has left the original analogue master tapes more fragile than ever. For this Britten centenary edition, DECCA has gone back to the original tapes and used the latest techniques and extensive comparison with the earliest LP pressings and subsequent remasterings, to make a definitive transfer. For the first time ever, all audio processing has been achieved in the 96 kHz 24-bit domain. The Studio Master HighRes-Download affords an unprecedented opportunity to hear the recording at this resolution.

Neither advances in recording technology nor the incendiary performances of modern conductors can supplant this recording… [Britten's] tempos, accents, and phrasing are perfect… (Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare)

…[an] iconic recording… Who but Pears could have intoned 'Strange Meeting' with such spectral eeriness? Who has ever matched the furious authority of Fischer-Dieskau's 'Be slowly lifted up'? Listening again reminds of just how extraordinary Vishnevskaya's voice was, too: darkly voluptuous with a core of steel. Her anguished cry of 'Lacrimosa' has lost none of its visceral power. Britten succeeded, too, in evoking that spine-tingling burst of stratospheric sound from the Highgate boys choir which hardly sounds human. His incandescent commitment to pacifism and horror at the failure of humanity blazes forth… Britten wanted real terror, real hysteria from the singers, and he got it.' (Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine)

'What can be said about Britten’s War Requiem that hasn’t already been said? That it is brilliantly composed, endlessly fascinating and profoundly affecting? That it is lyrically heartrending, musically heartbreaking and emotionally devastating? That it is the single most persuasive setting of the Requiem text of the 20th century? That is the single most compelling reason to be a pacifist that’s ever been put to music? It’s all been said before.

What can be said about Britten’s own recording that hasn’t already been said? That the soloists – soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, tenor Peter Pears and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – are not only three of the great singers of the 20th century and the creators of their parts but for all intents and purposes definitive? That the Bach Choir, the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus and especially the Highgate School Choir are absolutely magnificent and unbearably moving? That the Melos Ensemble and the London Symphony Orchestra are altogether wonderful and overwhelmingly powerful? That John Culshaw’s production was in its time and remains in our time as vivid as life and immediate as death? That Britten’s conducting is, without a doubt and beyond all argument, unsurpassable? It’s all been said before.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said is that this particular release of the War Requiem includes about 50 minutes in 11 separate cues of Britten’s rehearsals for the recording. These rehearsals don’t add anything to the work or the performance but they do allow the listener to hear Britten create the performance, sometimes note by note, and thereby allow the listener to hear the work with much greater clarity. For those who already own one of the previous releases of this recording, this might not seem like a compelling reason to pick up this release. But for anyone who deeply love the work and the composer, the rehearsals will be fascinating listening.' (James Leonard, All Music Guide)

Tracklist:

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

01. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Requiem aeternam-"Requiem Aeternam"
02. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Requiem aeternam-"What Passing Bells For These Who Die As Cattle?"
03. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Dies irae"
04. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Bugles Sang, Saddening the Evening Air"
05. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Liber Scriptus Proferetur"
06. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Out There, We've Walked Quite Friendly Up To Death"
07. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Recordare Jesu Pie"
08. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Be Slowly Lifted Up"
09. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Dies Irae"
10. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Lacrimosa Dies Illa"
11. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Dies Irae-"Move Him Into the Sun"
12. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Offertorium-"Domine Jesu Christe"
13. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Offertorium-"So Abram Rose, and Clave the Wood"
14. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Sanctus-"Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus"
15. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Sanctus-"After the Blast Of Lightning From the East"
16. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Agnus Dei-"One Ever Hangs Where Shelled Roads Part"
17. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Libera me-"Libera me, Domine"
18. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Libera me-"It Seemed That Out Of Battle I Escaped"
19. Britten: War Requiem, Op.66 / Libera me-"Let Us Sleep Now…In Paradisum"

Personnel:
Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano
Peter Pears, tenor
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
The Bach Choir
London Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Highgate School Choir
Melos Ensemble
Simon Preston, organ
London Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Britten, conductor

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, 3-5, 7, 8, 10 January 1963

Digitally remastered