The Two New War Requiem Recordings (Plus One)

On the (near) eve of the U.S. release Antonio Pappano's recording of Britten's War Requiem (November 19), we can hear the entire performance online at NPR for about a week. The soloists are Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Hampson. Pappano leads the Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. (Thanks to Mr. Hampson for the heads-up.)

Meanwhile, the Mariss Jansons recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, the Tölzer Boys Choir, soprano Emily Magee, tenor Mark Padmore, and baritone Christian Gerhaher is available now. And you can download it from Amazon.com for less than six bucks!

Update: Thanks to Stray (see below) we also have a link to a recent Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcast. Soloists are Tatiana Pavlovskaya, John Mark Ainsley, and Matthias Goerne, with Charles Dutoit conducting. The BSO Media Center is a super resource, with lots of great information, videos, broadcasts and podcasts, including an 11-minute video that offers background on Britten and the War Requiem.

Britten's War Requiem – Netrebko, Bostridge, and Hampson

As Seen on Facebook:

Thomas Hampson

Listen to the entire new recording of Britten's War Requiem before it comes out!

The Guardian Article  

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You can listen to it at Soundcloud for about another week.

Watching the Radio – Soprano Sendungen von Ö1

Joyce, Anna, Nuria, and Miah

If you have the kind of trouble I have finding programmes on BBC Radio 3, and you can’t access U-toob* at work, you can at least listen to the broadcast from the Last Night of the Proms on my new favorite radio station, Austria’s Ö1. Of course, it’s a great listen, plus it’s fun to hear the Austrian announcer pronounce “Last Night of the Proms” perfectly, then stumble over “DiDonato.” The program is on 7 Tage, and is available for a few more days online or on your mobile Ö1 app.  

BBC Radio 3 Reminder – Britten and Wagner

Here's another chance to hear Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, originally broadcast in March by Bayrische Radio. The BBC will broadcast it on Radio 3, Wednesday May 8. The BBC usually archives these concerts for about a week after the broadcast. 

Britten – War Requiem Broadcast from Munich

The radio broadcast of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is now available at the BR website. Mariss Jansons leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, the Tölzer Boys Choir, soprano Emily Magee, tenor Mark Padmore, and baritone Christian Gerhaher.  

Emily Magee gives a dramatic reading to the Mass texts (check out the Sanctus and Libera me in particular) in concert with the two choirs. And Messers Padmore and Gerhaher take us from light to dark and back to the light again as they share the sometimes poignant, sometimes terrifying, and always emotional Owen texts. Maestro Jansons holds the notoriously-difficult-to-coordinate work together with aplomb.

Britten – War Requiem Broadcast from Lucerne: March 23, 2013

In observance of the Benjamin Britten centenary, Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra will present his War Requiem. They'll be joined by the Tölzer Boys Choir, American soprano Emily Magee, English tenor Mark Padmore, and German baritone Christian Gerhaher.