A Modern Hero

Orchestra Wellington crowned its year with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, a towering work of the 20^th century, deeply felt by the pacifist Britten and full of emotional impact for contemporary audiences in the current global conflicts. It is an inspired, spine-tingling, heart-wrenching work and the assembled musicians did it proud.

The work uses massive resources. A large choir, soprano soloist, and orchestra perform the Latin mass for the dead. A smaller orchestra accompanies two further soloists – baritone and tenor – who thread through the mass the disillusioned and bitter words of the First World War poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. The contrast between the sentiments of each component could hardly be more stark. And adding to this dramatic contrast is a smaller choir of children’s voices suggesting the innocence so harmed by war.

The music was variously reverential, mournful, beseeching, and consoling. But the dramatic and terrifying sense of war and disillusionment were omnipresent. The opening Requiem Aeternam, for example, started with a soft choir joined by ghostly children’s voices. But then, suddenly, an angry tenor voice was injected asking “What passing bells for these that die as cattle?” That dramatic juxtaposition continued throughout the work.

The soloists were soprano Morag Atchison, tenor Daniel Szesiong Todd, and baritone Benson Wilson. Atchison’s voice was dramatic and soaring, while Todd’s and Wilson’s were more intimate and restrained. The Orpheus Choir, marvellously prepared as usual by their director Brent Stewart, sang infinitely softly when needed and elsewhere thundered angrily.

Orchestra Wellington’s current composer-in-residence, Eve de Castro-Robinson’s impressive Hour of Lead preceded the requiem. She said that she thought of the piece as a prelude to Britten’s work. It reflected Britten very well, contrasting warlike instrumentation (including the orchestra’s tramping feet) with two exquisitely sweet well-known hymns.

Thank you Orchestra Wellington and Orpheus Choir for a very memorable concert.