Hill Auditorium
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem
Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write his War Requiem for the re-consecration of Britain’s Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by a Nazi bomb raid in 1940. The lifelong pacifist with deeply humanitarian beliefs had been thinking about writing a work that addressed the bloodshed and sorrow of war for many years, and this work provided his most powerful demonstration of its horror, devastation, and futility.
The work, dedicated to four of Britten’s friends who were killed during World War II, mixes the Latin words of the Mass for the Dead with poetry of Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action just one week before World War I ended. The work, which has never been performed on a UMS concert, requires huge forces, including large orchestra and chorus, organ, a chamber orchestra that accompanies the soloists, and a children’s choir.
Artist Website
https://ums.org/about/ums-choral-union/Thank You to Our Sponsors
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR
- The Jerry Blackstone UMS Choral Union Performance Fund
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- Frances Mauney Lohr Choral Union Endowment Fund