Miguel Muelle:

>I will be attending a performance of the War Requiem by Britten this
>Thursday (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra w/ Donald Runnicles), and I know
>nothing about the piece.  I would love to hear from those who know the
>piece -- what they love about it, etc.  Thanks.

In exchange, you are going to tell us about the performance with Runnicles,
right? It is a powerful work.  There is considerable dynamic range, from a
very quiet beginning--and quiet, poignant end--to the Tuba Mirum passage
with brass that is right up there with the Berlioz Requiem in its ability
to shake you in your seat.  So may the quietly angry song about the curse
of the big gun.  Britten was a pacifist and the War Requiem was mostly a
setting of poems of Wilfred Owen who was killed in the First World War.
The choral parts are a brief setting of the Latin Mass but mainly it
features solo barritone, tenor or soprano. You should be able to hear
every word clearly, if the performance is good.  The words mattered as
much as the music to Britten, I think.  The final song is a song of regret
addressed to a dead soldier by another who laments that he "might have made
many men laugh."

Jim Tobin