Back from the archives, a night to remember
Leinsdorf, Britten, and an unforgettable US premiere
Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem," first performed in 1962 at the reopening of Coventry Cathedral, is perhaps the last big statement about life (and death) by a classical composer to capture the world's attention. Leonard Bernstein's "Mass"? Don't think so. Elliot Goldenthal's "Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio"? Nope. John Adams's post-9/11 "On the Transmigration of Souls" deserved to succeed, but hasn't.
Much loved and still widely performed, Britten's intensely antiwar Requiem addresses the ultimate questions in a striking way, much copied since, by combining secular poetry (by the World War I poet Wilfred Owen) with sections of the Latin Mass for the Dead. In the early '60s, it spoke to the European condition, still recovering from war. Now it speaks to ours.
A DVD issued by Video Artists International captures the War Requiem in its first American performance, at Tanglewood on July 27, 1963, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under its new music director, Erich Leinsdorf. This is the last and best in VAI's series of seven DVD releases of BSO telecasts from the late '50s and early '60s, which were found in the archives of the orchestra and WGBH, Boston's venerable public TV station.
Don't expect high definition. The image is grainy. In the early broadcasts, the mono sound isn't very good, either. The interest is in seeing these legendary conductors up close, leading a great orchestra in some of their signature pieces: Charles Munch in Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique," Pierre Monteux in Stravinsky's "Petrouchka," John Barbirolli in Delius's "The Walk to the Paradise Garden." Too bad no one filmed rehearsals; by performance time, these conductors had made the stew and are mostly watching the pot boil.
The Britten, however, has a special electricity. It was a new work, and a premiere, so no one could be sure how it would come off. The sound is excellent, thanks to Symphony archivist Bridget Carr, who found the stereo radio broadcast in her files. This was then married to WGBH's videotape. Together, they capture an evening of great intensity and collaborative purpose.
Leinsdorf was at his best in a massive choral work like this, with his big opera-house beat and broad view of the score. He has fine soloists in soprano Phyllis Curtin (who considered this one of her finest evenings, with reason), tenor Nicholas Di Virgilio (a beautiful, well-trained singer, who retired from a teaching career at the University of Illinois a few years ago), and Tom Krause, the splendid Finnish baritone, then only 29 and making his American debut. Alfred Nash Patterson's Chorus Pro Musica is well coached and charged up.
The cumulative impact is shattering, a microcosm of the experience of war itself. (The final images of the audience disappearing might suggest they didn't like it much; in fact, they applauded for 20 minutes.) For years, Britten's own 1963 Decca recording was the only one on the market. Others have followed, but none, not even Britten's, is superior to this. 