{"product_id":"cc72388-war-requiem","title":"War Requiem","description":"\u003cp\u003eNetherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra,\u003cbr\u003eNetherlands Radio Choir \u0026amp; Netherlands Children’s Choir\u003cbr\u003eJaap van Zweden\u003cbr\u003eReinbert de Leeuw\u003cbr\u003eConductor Netherlands Radio Choir: Celso Antunes\u003cbr\u003eConductor Netherlands Children’s Choir: Wilma ten Wolde\u003cbr\u003eEvelina Dobracheva soprano\u003cbr\u003eAnthony Dean Griffey tenor\u003cbr\u003eMark Stone baritone\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBritten - War Requiem\u003cbr\u003eDuring the late 14th and early 15th centuries, a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael was erected in Coventry. In 1918, it was designated a cathedral. The\u003cbr\u003ecathedral was almost entirely destroyed during a German air raid in 1940, with only the outer walls, bell tower and tomb of the first bishop remaining intact. These were\u003cbr\u003epreserved as a memorial. In the 1950s, the decision was made to incorporate the ruins in a new building. The first stone was laid by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 and the new cathedral opened on May 25, 1962. Five days later, it was musically inaugurated with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, in a performance broadcast live by the BBC.\u003cbr\u003eAt the time, Britten was probably the only British composer able to strike a collective chord with his countrymen – even though in his operas, he always sided with eccentrics and outcasts. As a pacifist and homosexual, he had been personally familiar with the conflict between the individual and establishment since the 1930s. Yet Britten was not a political activist, for he was decidedly a member of a generation that held its peace when confronted with the dark aspects of community, family or the military. Artistically, however, Britten was an activist, as witness his antithetical heroes: Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, Billy Budd and Owen Wingrave. At times, his political message was so encoded that it seemed like a message in a bottle for a better future.\u003cbr\u003eBritten’s political consciousness embedded a number of these hidden messages in the War Requiem in a way that only like minds would recognize themselves as\u003cbr\u003ebeing addressed. Take for instance the soloists he had in mind for the premiere of the War Requiem. To the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, he confided that he\u003cbr\u003ewanted to bring together three soloists here as representatives of the countries that had suffered most in the war. Britten was thinking of an Englishman (the tenor\u003cbr\u003ePeter Pears), a German (the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and a Russian (Vishnevskaya). The soloist group in no way reflected the Allied forces. On the contrary,\u003cbr\u003ethey were former enemies that came to stand before an imaginary reconciliation committee. Take for instance the last movement, Libera me, in which a fallen\u003cbr\u003eBritish soldier talks with a German soldier he has killed. Such understanding between enemies was bound to lead to problems. The Soviet authorities thought it was\u003cbr\u003einappropriate for Vishnevskaya to perform under such circumstances with a German and an Englishman. The combination of “‘Cathedral’ \u0026amp; Reconciliation with W. Germany” (as Britten called it) went too far. A replacement had to be found, and Heather Harper had but 10 days to learn the part.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625519940,"sku":"CC72388-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738625552708,"sku":"CC72388-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738625585476,"sku":"CC72388-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625618244,"sku":"CC72388-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625651012,"sku":"CC72388-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308043575620,"sku":"CC72388-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541123908,"sku":"CC72388S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541156676,"sku":"CC72388S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541189444,"sku":"CC72388S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72388.jpg?v=1790122975","url":"https:\/\/www.nativedsd.com\/products\/cc72388-war-requiem","provider":"NativeDSD Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}