War Requiem in Ljubljana

Benjamin Britten wrote his War Requiem opus 66 in 1961-62. The piece premiered at the consecration of newly built Coventry Cathedral: the cathedral’s Gothic predecessor building was completely destroyed by German bombers in the ‘Battle of Britain’ during the Second World War.
 
Britten, a staunch pacifist, elected to set the Latin Mass for the Dead to music, and added nine  poems by Wilfred Owen - harrowing texts that Owen wrote in the trenches of the First World War. Some remain unfinished: Owen fell in the Second Battle of the Sambre in 1918, a week shy of the Armistice. Britten has Owen's words sung by the two male soloists; the choirs and the soprano soloist sing the liturgical text. During the performances, the various ensembles are spatially separated - the boys' choir is the furthest away: accompanied by its own small organ, it seems eerily removed.
 
To mark the opening of the 8th Winter Festival in Ljubljana, two performances take place in Cankarjey dom: The choir and orchestra of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kaunas State Choir, the Vienna Boys Choir and soloists Irina Lungu, Ian Bostridge and Matthias Goerne perform under the baton of Charles Dutoit.