Benjamin Britten's War Requiem
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Regarded as one of the most important pieces in 20th Century English music, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was first played in the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962. The original had been destroyed during World War II. In 2013, Simon Watts spoke to Maggie Cotton, one of the orchestral performers who took part, and to composer Michael Berkeley, Britten's godson.
(Photo: Benjamin Britten in 1964 - BBC copyright)
Transcript
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| 0:41.0 | Here in the UK, Coventry has just become the latest annual city of culture. |
| 0:47.0 | Coventry was heavily bombed during World War II and a new cathedral had to be built afterwards. |
| 0:53.2 | At the emotional consecration ceremony, Benjamin Britain conducted the first performance of his |
| 0:59.2 | famous war requiem. It's 1962 and Benjamin Britain, one of England's leading composers, is conducting a new work |
| 1:18.4 | at the spectacular new cathedral in the city of Coventry. It's a requiem mass for the dead of World War II and of all wars. |
| 1:27.0 | It was just an incredible atmosphere in that huge space. |
| 1:34.4 | Incredible. |
| 1:36.4 | With the boys of the choir and the loft, angels, ethereal voices from above, and we never saw them. |
| 1:45.0 | They sounded fantastic. |
| 1:49.0 | Maggie Cotton percussionist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. |
| 1:53.0 | People were sort of totally awestruck. |
| 1:57.0 | People in black, quite a lot of clergy in their various robes. And last people I think was a row of bishops. |
| 2:10.0 | No applause by request of the composer it was not an audience it was a congregation |
| 2:18.6 | Coventry's new Modernist cathedral had risen beside the ruins of its Gothic predecessor. |
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