Juxtaposing the incisive antiwar verse of English World War I poet and soldier Wilfred Owen with Latin text from the Catholic requiem Mass, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, first performed in 1962, continues to be a stirring reminder of the cost of military conflicts everywhere and the epic losses Owen’s poetry memorializes and laments. BU’s College of Fine Arts will present the requiem this evening in its annual fall concert at Symphony Hall, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the so-called Great War. The performance will include the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and BU Symphonic Chorus, joined by the Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC), a chamber ensemble, and a trio of vocal soloists.
Led by orchestral and choral conductor Scott Allen Jarrett (CFA’90, ’08), CFA lecturer and director of choral activities ad interim, and David Hoose, a CFA professor of music and director of orchestral activities, the performance features soprano Amanda Pabyan (CFA ’02), tenor William Hite, and baritone David Kravitz, with the BCC being conducted by Michele Adams, its assistant artistic director. The requiem was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in England after the original medieval cathedral was destroyed in a 1940 bombing raid. In the United States, CFA Dean Emerita Phyllis Curtin, the acclaimed soprano, performed in the War Requiem’s American premiere at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on July 27, 1963, under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf.
The requiem, which runs about 90 minutes with no intermission, is a logistically as well as musically challenging piece requiring “a very large chorus, a very large orchestra, a 12-person chamber orchestra, a children’s chorus, soloists, and a room to put them all in,” says Jarrett, noting that Symphony Hall extended its stage nearly 13 feet to accommodate tonight’s performance. “As an audience member you look at the stage and see all these performers amassed and hear beautiful children’s voices, accompanied by an organ, singing basically from heaven,” says Jarrett.
Benjamin Britten conducting a rehearsal of the English Chamber Orchestra, 1967. Photo courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk
Born in 1913, Britten was a conductor, composer, and pianist whose outspoken pacifism drew criticism in his native England and inspired him to leave in 1939 for America, where he remained for three years. Britten, who died in 1976, is best known for the War Requiem and his opera Peter Grimes.
In his program notes, James Schmidt, College of Arts & Sciences professor of history, philosophy, and political science describes how the requiem begins “with the chorus, accompanied by peeling bells, softly singing the opening words of the liturgy only to be cut short by the tenor’s plea that those who ‘die as cattle’ at least be spared ‘the mockery of prayers and bells.’” And thus, he writes, “the conflict begins.” Schmidt describes the War Requiem as wracked by unresolved musical tensions—“a requiem that sometimes seems to be at war with itself.”
What Britten does is “absolutely remarkable,” says Jarrett. “He uses this text to prove that we will always have conflicts, they’re always present, and our striving is to never let that conflict be commonplace, which is the beauty of the sentiment. For many of the young students singing this, their understanding of American history, and the first and second World Wars, is somewhat limited,” says Jarrett.
Owen, who composed nearly all of his poems between August 1917 and September 1918, was killed in action at the age of 25, just one week before the Armistice. Like Owen’s poetry, “the requiem invites us to be able to have a good conversation about the nature of conflicts and what does pacifism really mean,” Jarrett says.
The concert will be broadcast live on the School of Music website and will be archived in the School of Music’s Virtual Concert Hall.
The BU Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus concert, presented by the CFA School of Music, is tonight, Monday, November 24, at 8 p.m., at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. Seating is general admission. Tickets are $25; student rush tickets are $10, available at the door today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Members of the BU community receive one free ticket at the door on the day of the performance, subject to availability. Purchase tickets here or call 617-266-1200.