On Wednesday April 30th, 2014, the Atlanta Symphony will perform Benjamin Britten's WAR REQUIEM at Carnegie Hall. The participating artists are:
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano, Music Director and Conductor
Evelina Dobracheva, Soprano
Anthony Dean Griffey, Tenor
Stephen Powell, Baritone
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Norman Mackenzie, Director
Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Artistic Director
Ticket information here.
Benjamin Britten was commissioned to compose the WAR REQUIEM to celebrate the consecration of the re-built St. Michael's Cathedral in Coventry, England. The original cathedral had been destroyed by German bombing raids during World War II. The WAR REQUIEM received its world premiere at the cathedral on May 30th, 1962.
In his WAR REQUIEM, Benjamin Britten, a life-long pacifist, was inspired by the texts of the Latin Mass for the Dead as well as the poetry of Wilfred Owen), an English officer killed (at the age of twenty-five) in battle in World War I one week before the Armistice, to create a uniquely powerful musical and emotional experience. Devoid of romanticism or patriotic fervor, Owen's poems graphically depict the horrors of battle, repeatedly portraying enemy soldiers as kindred spirits, innocent pawns in the hands of those who send them off to war.
World leaders in the twenty-first century still let slip the dogs of war as a solution to political and religious disputes, indifferent to the resulting human suffering. The effects are far-reaching, as a homeless Vet begging for change on the A train yesterday reminded me. I was the only person in a crowded car to give him money. Homeless veterans? In America? The shame of it is unspeakable.