Kevin Sutton:

>Given my fondness for the War Requiem, I must ask Jan to qualify his
>statement and tell us why he prefers Ms. Gubaidulina's work over Mr.
>Britten's.  It's fine to have an opinion, but I believe in the opinions
>of others more readily if they are backed with an argument to support
>them.

Thanks for this honest and fair answer.  However, I'm having difficulties
answering it.  I have heard the Gubaidulina work once (and I should use
this opportunity to correct myself:  it was premiered in March 2002, not
in 2001 as I stated earlier) and the Britten not much more, and never live.
Now you may say "it's music that needs getting to know, and before you have
heard soemthing at least thrice shut up about it" - well, I would agree
to that!  What I can offer are just the thoughts of an initial listening
experience:  Britten left me cold, Gubaidulina didn't.  I found the concept
of several 'groups' very interesting, but couldn't hear any reasonable
effect made out of it.  the St John work works without such things, and
did impress me heavily.  That's basically all I have to say.  I will gladly
come back to this subject with a more sound opinion when I studied both
works closer (back in March, the Gubaidulina Passion recording seemed to
be not available, Amazon couldn't get it within two months), and I'll try
to remember to write more then.

Jan