"The Dutch premiere took place during the Holland Festival, in 1964. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir were conducted by Bernard Haitink; the chamber orchestra (consisting of Concertgebouw Orchestra instrumentalists) by Britten himself. The soloists were Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, in their first public performance together. The English Chamber Choir performed the work at ""Your Country Needs You"", an evening of ""voices in opposition to war"" organised by The Crass Collective in November 2002. To commemorate the eve of the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the original cathedral, a performance of the Requiem took place in"
"Meredith Davies (Albert) Meredith Davies CBE (30 July 1922 – 9 March 2005) was a British conductor, renowned for his advocacy of English music by composers such as Benjamin Britten, Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His co-conducting, with the composer, of the premiere of Britten's ""War Requiem"", at the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 1962, is generally regarded as one of the highlights of British 20th-century choral music. Meredith Davies was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, the second son of a clergyman. At the age of seven he became a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music"
"Culshaw thought of all his recordings, that of Britten's ""War Requiem"" was the finest. Greenfield says of it, ""another recording which confounded the record world not just by its technical brilliance but by the way it sold in huge quantities."" The recording was made in London in 1963, the year after the premiere of the Requiem at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral. For the recording Culshaw managed to assemble the three singers whom Britten had in mind when writing the work, uniting Russian, German and English soloists to represent the former enemy nations – Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau"
"the post of Chorus Master, which he held for some eleven years until 1972. Under the Glock regime new works began to re-assume a vital part in the Society's repertoire. On 1 August 1963 the London premiere of Britten's ""War Requiem"" (first performed the preceding year at Coventry Cathedral) was given, with Britten and Meredith Davies conducting. Later that year Alan Rawsthorne's ""Carmen Vitale"" was a choral commission; and at the beginning of 1963 the Society faced one of its greatest challenges, a new work by Hans Werner Henze called ""Novae de Infinito Laudes"". This was given two performances under"
"Britten's War Requiem (1963 recording) Britten's War Requiem (1963) is the first recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. It featured Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Pears with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Melos Ensemble, The Bach Choir and the Highgate School Choir, and was conducted by Britten himself. The recording took place in the Kingsway Hall in London and was produced by John Culshaw for Decca. Within five months of its release in May 1963 it sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of contemporary classical music at that time. Britten wrote the music with the soloists"
"Year Britten's War Requiem (1963 recording) Britten's War Requiem (1963) is the first recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. It featured Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Pears with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Melos Ensemble, The Bach Choir and the Highgate School Choir, and was conducted by Britten himself. The recording took place in the Kingsway Hall in London and was produced by John Culshaw for Decca. Within five months of its release in May 1963 it sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of contemporary classical music at that time. Britten wrote the music with the"
"and church operas. The chamber music in his ""War Requiem"" was written for the Melos Ensemble and was conducted by Britten in the first performance at Coventry in 1962. The first recording was made in 1963. Cecil Aronowitz also participated in the premiere and first recording of Britten's ""Curlew River"" in 1964. In 1976, Britten wrote Aronowitz a version of his ""Lachrymae"" (written for William Primrose in 1950, originally for viola and piano) for viola and string orchestra. In 1951, he premiered the ""Suite for Viola and Cello"" by Arthur Butterworth with Terence Weil. Alun Hoddinott wrote a Viola Concertino"
"Peter Graeme Graeme Peter Crump (1921 – 1 March 2012), known professionally as Peter Graeme and as 'Timmy' Crump to friends and family, was an English oboist and academic teacher. He was best known as the principal oboist of the Melos Ensemble. Peter Graeme studied the oboe with Léon Goossens. Graeme was the oboist of the Melos Ensemble, founded in 1950, and participated with the group in the premiere of the ""War Requiem"" by Benjamin Britten, conducted by the composer at the Coventry Cathedral in 1962. In 1954 he played English horn in a recording of Warlock's song cycle ""The"
"Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera ""Peter Grimes"" (1945), the ""War Requiem"" (1962) and the orchestral showpiece ""The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra"" (1945). Born in Suffolk, the son of a dentist, Britten showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer"
"another early favourite. The composer's website reports that Dunkerley, one of Britten's closest friends, took part in the 1944 Normandy landings. Unlike the other three dedicatees of Britten's War Requiem, Dunkerley ""survived the war but committed suicide in June 1959, two months before his wedding"" and three years before the premiere of the requiem at Coventry Cathedral's reconsecration. Thirteen-year-old Harry Morris, whom Britten met in 1936, was from a troubled home, and Harry was the only boy ever to accuse Britten of sexual abuse. They were on holiday in Cornwall together and Bridcut recounts that Harry claimed that Britten made"
"the opening theme of which was quoted by Delius at the start of the ""Requiem"". Fifteen more years elapsed before the next performance – only the second in the United Kingdom – on 9 November 1965, by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Groves, with Heather Harper and Thomas Hemsley as the soloists. It returned to London in 1968, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Choral Society, Heather Harper and John Shirley-Quirk, at the Royal Albert Hall. Sir Malcolm Sargent was to have conducted, but he had died in 1967 and Meredith Davies was called in in his place."
"Solemn Commemoration on the Centenary of the Outbreak of the First World War"", HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, representing HM the Queen. After a reading from ""St John's Gospel"", the choir gave the first performance of a new composition by David Matthews, a pupil of Benjamin Britten, setting a bitter, disillusioned 1914 poem by Harold Monro, ""To what God shall we chant our songs of battle?"" alongside passages from ""Lamentations"" and ""St Luke"". James O'Donnell, Abbey organist and master of the choristers, commented that the work ""leaves you standing on the edge of an abyss."" It was delivered by young"
"John Rutter John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music. Born in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter grew up living over the Globe pub on London's Marylebone Road. He was educated at Highgate School where fellow pupils included John Tavener, Howard Shelley, Brian Chapple and Nicholas Snowman, and as a chorister there took part in the first (1963) recording of Britten's ""War Requiem"" under the composer's baton. He then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of"
"The National Anthem (Benjamin Britten) The National Anthem is a 1962 choral and orchestral arrangement of ""God Save the Queen"" by Benjamin Britten. The arrangement was written for the Leeds Festival. It has been described as an ""extraordinary progression from pianissimo prayer to pealing, overlapping choral fortissimo"". The piece was performed by Britten and the English Chamber Orchestra, along with the overture ""The Building of the House"", at the openings of two English concert halls in 1967. The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a purpose-built music venue on the South Bank in London which opened in March 1967. Britten prepared"
"""His feeling for poetry (not only English) and the inflexions of language make him, I think, the greatest musical realizer of English"". One of the best-known works in which Britten set poetry was the ""War Requiem"" (1962). It intersperses the Latin requiem mass, sung by soprano and chorus, with settings of works by the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, sung by tenor and baritone. At the end the two elements are combined, as the last line of Owen's ""Strange meeting"" mingles with the ""In paradisum"" of the mass. Matthews describes the conclusion of the work as ""a great wave"
"most important book; and ""Style in Musical Art"", collected Oxford lectures (1911). Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song ""Jerusalem"", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem ""I was glad"", the choral and orchestral ode ""Blest Pair of Sirens"", and the hymn tune ""Repton"", which sets the words ""Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations."
"way, the Melos Ensemble has directly and indirectly influenced music for new combinations of chamber musicians in contemporary music. Melos Ensemble The Melos Ensemble is a group of musicians who started in 1950 in London to play chamber music in mixed instrumentation of string instruments, wind instruments and others. The ensemble's reputation for excellence has encouraged composers to write music exploring these resources. Benjamin Britten composed the chamber music for his ""War Requiem"" for the Melos Ensemble and conducted the group in the first performance in Coventry. They should not be confused with two other chamber groups of similar name,"
"untrue – Winston Churchill was aware that a major bombing raid was to take place, but no-one knew where the raid was meant to strike before it was too late to evacuate. After the war, the city was extensively rebuilt. The new city centre built in the 1950s was designed by young town planner Donald Gibson and included one of Europe's first traffic-free shopping precincts. The new Broadgate was opened by H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth in 1948, and the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral was opened in 1962 next to and incorporating the ruins of the old cathedral. It was designed by Basil"
"Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song ""Jerusalem"", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem ""I was glad"", the choral and orchestral ode ""Blest Pair of Sirens"", and the hymn tune ""Repton"", which sets the words ""Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations. After early attempts to work in insurance, at his father's behest, Parry"
"practised Catholicism all of his life. John Dowling (RAF officer) Wing Commander John Reginald Dowling, (5 July 1923 – July 2000) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer and helicopter pilot famous for placing the spire on the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral on 22 April 1962. He was a Lancaster bomber pilot during the Second World War, and the author of ""RAF Helicopters: The First Twenty Years"", a comprehensive overview of the RAF's early helicopters and their uses. Dowling was born in Withington Manchester, the son of Dr Stephen Dowling and Mrs Kathleen Dowling (née Gilmore). One of four children, he"
"of the February 28 Incident and subsequent White Terror. Lastly, the 20th century saw the development of the secular Requiem, written for public performance without specific religious observance, such as Frederick Delius's ""Requiem"", completed in 1916 and dedicated to ""the memory of all young Artists fallen in the war"", and Dmitry Kabalevsky's ""Requiem"" (Op. 72 – 1962), a setting of a poem written by Robert Rozhdestvensky especially for the composition. Herbert Howells's unaccompanied ""Requiem"" uses Psalm 23 (""The Lord is my shepherd""), Psalm 121 (""I will lift up mine eyes""), ""Salvator mundi"" (""O Saviour of the world,"" in English), ""Requiem"
"Britten's ""The Rape of Lucretia"", ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"", ""Albert Herring"", ""The Turn of the Screw"", ""Let's Make an Opera"" and Britten's version of ""The Beggar's Opera"", either on tour, at Aldeburgh, or at Sadler's Wells Theatre when the EOG visited London. Davies had by now had a significant association with Benjamin Britten. Britten's original intention was to conduct the ""War Requiem"" himself. Davies was engaged to prepare the large chorus, drawn from all over the diocese. When Britten, following a minor operation, arrived in Coventry for final rehearsals, he found the acoustics unsatisfactory, cathedral staff unco-operative, and the chorus"
"Milnes; Julia Migenes:Denis O'Neill; Joshua Rifkin; George Shearing; Mel Tormé; Robert Tear; Willard White. Iain Sutherland's varied repertoire encompasses baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary works as well as the light repertoire of Vienna, Hollywood, Broadway and International Light Music. He conducted Britten's ""War Requiem"" in Bratislava with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus commemorating the 50th. anniversary of the end of WW2, and the Mozart ""Requiem"" in London with the London Orpheus Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra on 7th.July,2008, the first anniversary of the ""7/7"" terrorist attack. Iain Sutherland was Musical Director for a series of BBC radio recordings of classic"
"contemporary works: ""Voices of Night"" by Franz Reizenstein in 1969; La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ by Messiaen at the first night of the Proms in 1970; and the ""Requiem"" by Gyorgy Ligeti in 1971. In 1971, Colin Davis departed to take up the post of Music Director at Covent Garden, and was succeeded by the composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. There was also a change of chorus master: in 1972 Peter Gellhorn was succeeded by John Poole, who directed several of the concerts in this period, including Dvořák's ""Te Deum"" and Bruckner's F minor Mass. The Boulez repertoire, as"
"mythological king of the Trojans, as recorded in Homer's ""Iliad"", and again he prepared his own libretto. As with ""The Midsummer Marriage"", Tippett's preoccupation with the opera meant that his compositional output was limited for several years to a few minor works, including a ""Magnificat"" and ""Nunc Dimittis"" written in 1961 for the 450th anniversary of the foundation of St John's College, Cambridge. ""King Priam"" was premièred in Coventry by the Covent Garden Opera on 29 May 1962 as part of a festival celebrating the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral. The production was by Sam Wanamaker and the lighting"
"Nicolas Hodges Nicolas Hodges (born 1970 in London) is a British pianist living in Germany. Nicolas Hodges was educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, Winchester College, and the universities of Cambridge and Bristol. Hodges sang as a treble in Christ Church Cathedral Choir and in that capacity recorded Bach Motets (on ASV) as well as performing in Benjamin Britten's ""War Requiem"" with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, in concert in the Royal Festival Hall and Birmingham Town Hall, as well as on the EMI recording of the work. He also performed with the choir"
"the 1962 premiere, and subsequent 1963 recording, of Benjamin Britten's ""War Requiem"", for which the instrumental sections accompanying the English texts had been written specifically for the Melos, and were directed by the composer in the performance. The recording received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. In 1964 and 1965 the Melos Ensemble played several concerts at the new ""Wardour Castle Summer School"", founded by Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr. On 16 August 1964 they played among others ""Monody for Corpus Christi"" by Birtwistle, ""Five Little Pieces"" (first performance) by Davies, and ""Suite"" Op.11 by"
"Melos Ensemble The Melos Ensemble is a group of musicians who started in 1950 in London to play chamber music in mixed instrumentation of string instruments, wind instruments and others. The ensemble's reputation for excellence has encouraged composers to write music exploring these resources. Benjamin Britten composed the chamber music for his ""War Requiem"" for the Melos Ensemble and conducted the group in the first performance in Coventry. They should not be confused with two other chamber groups of similar name, the Melos Quartet or the Melos Art Ensemble (an Italian group). The Melos Ensemble was founded by musicians who"
"Hall. On 11 November 2009 Bostridge sang ""Agnus Dei"" from Benjamin Britten's ""War Requiem"", at the Armistice Day service in Westminster Abbey. This uses the words of war poet Wilfred Owen's ""At a Calvary near the Ancre"". The service marked the loss of the WWI generation, whose last members died earlier the same year. Bostridge performed Kurt Weill's anti-war ""Four Walt Whitman Songs"" in 2014. He also has a long history with directing and performing ""The Threepenny Opera"". In 2013, he performed as part of the Barbican Britten centenary festival in London, and released a new recording of the composer's"
"War Music (composition) War Music is a composition for choir and orchestra by the Australian composer James Ledger. The work was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the centenary of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli during World War I. The text was written by the Australian musician Paul Kelly. It was given its world premiere on April 22, 2015 at the Sydney Opera House by the Gondwana Chorale and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Richard Gill. ""War Music"" has duration of roughly 25 minutes and is composed in two movements. The first movement reflects the violence"
"on 4 November 1846. The Bell Tower is all that remains of the old church; Trinity House refused to allow its removal as it provided a useful landmark for shipping. The church reopened in 2012 after extensive repairs to the roof. The churchyard includes fifty-two Commonwealth War Graves., and the grave of Thomas Merritt, whose carols are sung by Cornishmen worldwide and who was commissioned to write the 1902 Coronation March for Edward VII. The Church, its tower, the Basset sarcophagus, a Cornish cross, and the gates at the north end of the churchyard are all Grade II Listed. The"
"went to David Willcocks, director of music at King's College, Cambridge. He was soon pointing the choir in new directions by introducing important contemporary works, including Honegger's ""King David"", Delius's ""Sea Drift"" and Janáček's ""Glagolitic Mass"", and undertaking a number of recordings. Most notable of these was a performance of Britten's ""War Requiem"" conducted by the composer, a recording that sold 200,000 copies in the first five months. A series of foreign tours was also arranged with visits to the United States, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, France, Sweden and South Africa. The choir gave the Italian premiere of"
"he was also the music editor of the ""New English Hymnal"". In the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours he was promoted to Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), having previously been appointed a Lieutenant of that order in the 1987 New Year Honours. Following his retirement from the Chapel Royal, he was appointed an Extra Chaplain to the Royal Household. He is best known for his short Mass setting, ""Missa Brevis Capella Regalis"", and his setting of Digby Mackworth Dolben's poem ""Requests"", as well as his ""O For a Closer walk with God"". He died in July 2018 at the"