Benjamin Britten - War Requiem / hybrid 2 SACD set

Lavishly illustrated and documented soft cover book, housed in a deluxe rigid slipcase, presenting:

        An introduction and technical note on the new transfers and HD remastering by Decca Classics Label Director & Reissue Producer Dominic Fyfe, including reminiscences from three of the 1963 Decca recording crew
        Excerpts from John Culshaw’s 1981 autobiography Putting the Record Straight about the making of the recording
        A facsimile of the original 1963 booklet with texts, translation, and John Culshaw’s commentary
        Original session photographs and recently discovered curios including a facsimile of John Culshaw’s producer scor

November 1940, in an act of wartime aggression, Coventry Cathedral was raised to the ground and the city decimated.  In 1962 attention turned again to war-torn Coventry where in the city's newly built cathedral, Britten’s War Requiem received its symbolic world premiere, commissioned for the its reconsecration. In his deeply moving score, Britten set the entire text of the Latin Requiem Mass and interpolated nine of Wilfred Owen’s harrowing poems from the trenches. Britten organised the performers into three distinct but overlapping groups: full orchestra, chorus and soprano soloist for the Latin texts; a chamber ensemble with tenor and baritone soloists for Owen’s verses; and a distant boys’ choir; His choices for the three soloists were laden with deep meaning: the British tenor Peter Pears; the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; and the Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (who was ultimately barred by the Soviet regime from traveling to England for the premiere, and was replaced at less than two weeks’ notice by Heather Harper) to represent reconciliation between the three front-line casualties of 20th-century European conflict. Notwithstanding a few bumps, the impact of the performance spread immediately and critical reaction created momentum for a commercial recording.

Recorded between January 3 and 10, 1963, in London’s Kingsway Hall by Decca’s ‘dream team’ of producer John Culshaw and engineer Kenneth Wilkinson, Britten’s ideals were achieved when the provincial forces in Coventry were replaced by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Bach Choir (trained by David Willcocks), and the boys of Highgate School.  The Melos Ensemble returned, and one year after the premiere, the triumvirate of soloists, Britten had written The War Requiem for were united, with Britten conducting the performance.