Glassberg - Britten

A monumental work of great beauty and a condemnation of all wars, in the past as well as today.
It is the ‘War Requiem’ by Benjamin Britten, composer and avowed pacifist, who composed it in 1962 for the solemn inauguration of the new Coventry Cathedral, rebuilt after the devastation of World War II bombings.

The structure of the ‘War Requiem’ interweaves the traditional Latin text of the Requiem Mass with the poignant poems of Wilfred Owen, the English soldier and poet who wrote from the front about the horrors of the trenches and the senselessness of war, who died in 1918 just days before the end of the First World War.
His powerful poems bear witness to the brutality of war and the author’s deep humanity. Through the use of two languages and two distinct texts – and the reference to two different wars – Britten amplifies the universal message of the ‘War Requiem’, emphasising the horror of the Second World War and recalling the tragedy of the First World War. A masterpiece that, with its message of condemnation and hope for reconciliation, continues to resonate powerfully today.