Five of Brisbane’s finest ensembles join forces to perform Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem.
Britten’s War Requiem is irrefutably one of the most significant symphonic choral works of the 20th Century – a passionate statement of the futility and senselessness of war.
The work is scored on the largest imaginable scale employing two separate orchestras, full adult choir, children's choir, and three vocal soloists.
Originally commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral – which was built after the original 14th-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid – Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector, chose to set the Latin text of the Requiem Mass with nine poems by the celebrated English war poet, Wilfred Owen.