Tuesday, August 01, 2006
It's the End of the World As We Know It
 New York will hit 100 degrees today but not quite as hot as Baghdad and Beirut. The evangelicals are about to be proven at least partly right--mankind's stay on the planet is winding down. I had planned to chill out with some Rautaavara, Sibelius, Vasks and John Luther Adams today but put on a review copy of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem instead. Somehow, it feels right.
This version was recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II with Kurt Masur leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, with singers Christine Brewer, Anthony Dean Griffey, and the great Gerald Finley. This is familiar territory for Masur, an avowed pacifist. He recorded the War Requiem in 1998 with the New York Philharmonic, Carol Vaness, Jerry Hadley and Thomas Hampson and has conducted it many times.
Britten was a twit but, man, could he write music and this is an especially impassioned version, handsomely recorded--an audacious rival for Britten's "definitive" Decca recording with the LSO and Chorus, Galina Vishnevskaya, Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Programming Notes: Jennifer Higdon and Carson P. Cooman will both be guests on upcoming editions of Classical Discoveries hosted by Marvin Rosen.
Higdon will appear tomorrow morning, August 2 from 8:30 until 11 (eastern time) and the young Carson P. Cooman (who has already composed over 650 works) will appear on Wednesday morning, August 9 also from 8:30 until 11--if there is a Wednesday morning, August 9 from 8:30 until 11.
Classical Discoveries airs every Wednesday morning from 6:00 until 11 on WPRB (103.3 FM or on line at http://www.wprb.com) from Princeton, NJ.
posted by Jerry Bowles
8/01/2006
|
