Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem"
Looking for a way to bring on a really powerful movement to outlaw war for all time. As a freelance singer I'd done this 51 year old piece with the NY Philharmonic back in the early 90s. It remains an unforgettable experience. Last night We went to the concert hall to experience this piece again. At the end the hall was silent for the longest time. The president of the philharmonic society did a tremendous job of setting up the work for the audience and mentioned the diplomatic breakthrough with Iran - in Orange County, CA no less. I believe everyone was moved forever to the position that war should be outlawed.
Britten died in 1976, but would have been 100 years old on the day of the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination last Friday. It is the most powerful artistic expression of the horrible futility of war as expressed by the Latin Mass for the Dead intertwined with the poems of a young WW1 poet/soldier who died in the trenches of France one week before Armistice at the age of 25.
This is a spectacular video of a 1992 performance of the War Requiem in in its entirety from Germany with an International cast:
And accompanying necessary exam of the work:
http://www.haverford.edu/engl/english354/GreatWar/Requiem/WarRequiempage.html
"Owen was a soldier, who despite his abhorrence of war and what it stood for, fought bravely and courageously. He fought though it was tearing him apart inside. The poetry of his mental recovery from a breakdown on the battlefield is searing in its criticism of war and heart-wrenching in its questioning of humanity"
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Bonded for life through classical music. 