Britten: War Requiem London Symphony Orchestra & Gianandrea Noseda

• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976): War Requiem
• 1 Requiem aeternam (Chorus) 03:37
• 2 Te decent hymnus (Boys' Chorus, Chorus) 03:00
• 3 What passing-bells (Tenor) 02:37
• 4 Kyrie eleison (Chorus) 01:32
• Dies irae:
• 5 Dies irae, dies illa (Chorus) 03:32
• 6 Bugles sang (Baritone) 02:32
• 7 Liber scriptus proferetur (Soprano, Chorus) 03:00
• 8 Out there (Tenor, Baritone) 01:42
• 9 Recordare Jesu pie (Chorus) 03:51
• 10 Confutatis maledictis (Chorus) 01:05
• 11 Be slowly lifted up (Baritone) 02:10
• 12 Dies irae, dies illa (Soprano, Chorus) 03:00
• 13 Move him into the sun (Tenor, Soprano, Chorus) 04:11
• 14 Pie Jesu Domine (Chorus) 01:35
• Offertorium:
• 15 Domine Jesu Christe (Boys' Chorus, Chorus) 01:18
• 16 Sed signifer santus Michael (Chorus) 01:51
• 17 So Abraham rose (Baritone, Tenor) 03:22
• 18 Hostias et preces tibi (Tenor, Baritone, Boys' Chorus, Chorus) 02:40
• Sanctus:
• 19 Sanctus (Soprano, Chorus) 07:05
• 20 After the blast (Baritone) 02:34
• Agnus Dei:
• 21 One ever hangs where shelled roads part - Agnus Dei (Tenor, Chorus) 03:10
• Libera me:
• 22 Libera me (Soprano, Chorus) 08:02
• 23 It seemed (Tenor) 02:50
• 24 None, said the other (Baritone) 06:50
• 25 Let us sleep now (Tenor, Baritone, Soprano, Boys' Chorus, Chorus) 04:26
• 26 Requiescant in pace (Chorus) 10:16
• Total Runtime 01:31:48

Info for Britten: War Requiem

For his first LSO Live recording, Gianandrea Noseda is joined by three of today’s most widely acclaimed singers for a magnificent performance of Benjamin Britten’s choral masterpiece.

Premiered 50 years ago on 30 May 1962, the 'War Requiem' was commissioned for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by bombing raids during the Second World War.

Using the Latin mass of the dead, interspersed with texts by war poet Wilfred Owen, Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector, created a work that both mourned the dead and pleaded the futility of war. The 'War Requiem' was to become one of the defining choral works of the 20th Century.

Gianandrea Noseda was the first foreign Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and over the past decade his reputation in the opera house and concert hall has blossomed. He regularly conducts the LSO, as well as many of the world’s other great orchestras, and is Music Director of the Teatro Regio in Turin.

Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Sabina Cvilak perform regularly in the world’s leading opera houses and are renowned for their performances in Britten’s music. The LSO and LSC have both enjoyed long relationships with the composer and appeared on the first recording of the 'War Requiem', conducted by Britten himself.

„Noseda’s unashamedly dramatic interpretation held the audience transfixed. It was all so vivid … an overwhelming evocation of the grief, the waste and the pity of war.“ (The Times, UK)

“Noseda's live performance seeks to take the audience on a journey from the edge of consciousness to the blazing fires of the battlefield...Bostridge spins a beautiful line in the tenor's lyrical passages...Keenlyside is excellent throughout...Decisive and confident, the soprano Sabina Cvilak has the Slavic edge to her voice that has seemed hard-wired into the part since the incomparable Vishnevskaya” (Gramophone)

“the LSO Live account has great clarity and tonal sophistication. The Eltham choir is crisp and well balanced...The LSO certainly play well and the brass in the Dies irae are especially thrilling...All else pales next to Bostridge’s deeply moving, extraordinarily nuanced singing in Futility...The LSO chorus deserve a mention in dispatches. Their quiet singing in Pie Jesu is ineffably beautiful.” (MusicWeb International)

“[Noseda] delivers it afresh as a scintillating achievement...Sabina Cvilak's soprano has the focus, though not always the required gravitas, while tenor Ian Bostridge brings a piercing sincerity to all his solos...Keenlyside takes a different approach: sonorous, commanding, but sometimes lacking the necessary bitter edge...Nevertheless, this is an important issue: Noseda's judgement of pace is unerring, and the orchestra and chorus simply superb.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Sabina Cvilak, soprano
Ian Bostridge, tenor
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Chorus
Choir of Eltham College
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Gianandrea Noseda
54, is widely recognized as one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was named the National Symphony Orchestra's seventh music director in January 2016, with a four-year term beginning in the fall of 2017 for the 2017–2018 season.

Noseda has served as Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino since 2007, ushering in a transformative era for the company matched with international acclaim for its productions, tours, recordings, and film projects. His visionary leadership and ambitious global touring initiatives over the last decade have brought the opera house firmly into the realm of the leading international companies on the global stage, where it has become one of Italy's most important cultural ambassadors. Noseda took the Teatro Regio Torino on two major residencies recently: at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2017 which focused on Verdi with the Messa di Requiem and performances of two fully staged operas and at the Royal Opera House of Muscat, Oman with a production of Aida; the Edinburgh residency was among the longest by a visiting company in the Festival's history.

Noseda also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, and Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival in Italy.

In addition to eight weeks with the NSO, highlights of Noseda's 2017–2018 season include appearances with the Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris, and a tour of the Far East with the London Symphony Orchestra, in addition to concerts in London. In May 2018, he leads the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the first time.

Noseda is a frequent guest with the leading opera houses and orchestras in the world, including the Cleveland Orchestra, La Scala, Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Opera House, Wiener Symphoniker and Zurich Opera. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2015 and at the Salzburg Festival in 2015 leading the Vienna Philharmonic with performances of Il Trovatore.

Noseda also continues to work with institutions where he previously held posts, including the BBC Philharmonic, which he led from 2002–2011; the Pittsburgh Symphony, where the Victor de Sabata Chair was created for him as principal guest conductor; and the Mariinsky Theatre, which appointed him its first-ever foreign principal guest conductor in 1997, a position he held for a decade. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1999-2002 and of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2003 to 2006.

Gianandrea Noseda has a cherished relationship with the Metropolitan Opera

The London Symphony Orchestra
resident at the Barbican Centre, is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading orchestras. The LSO works with an enviable family of artists, including Valery Gergiev, Michael Tilson Thomas and Daniel Harding, and has long-standing relationships with some of the leading musicians in the world. The orchestra enjoys residencies in New York, Paris and Tokyo, in addition to regular tours around the globe. The LSO is set apart from other international orchestras by the depth of its commitment to music education through LSO Discovery, reaching over 65,000 people each year and offering people of all ages opportunities to get involved in music-making. The orchestra is a world-leader in recording music for CD, film and events, and was the official orchestra of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Ceremonies.

Booklet for Britten: War Requiem