Warner Classics Britten War Reqiuem pre-order now Photograph: Photograph: Guardian



In 1958 Benjamin Britten was invited to compose a work - of any content, scale or duration - for the consecration ceremonies of Coventry Cathedral, which was being rebuilt following its destruction by Luftwaffe bombs. Britten decided on a full-length setting of the Requiem Mass interspersed with the poetry of Wilfred Owen. He told friends that what mattered most to him was the message. On the title page of the score, he quoted Owen:

"My subject is War, and the pity of War.

The Poetry is in the pity …

All a poet can do today is warn."



"The War Requiem is a masterpiece of the deepest emotional and moral depth," wrote Ian Bostridge in a piece for the Guardian in 2011. It is today one of the 20th century's defining works whose popularity has proved enduring. "The War Requiem is extremely communicative," says Antonio Pappano. "The audience picks it up right away. The feelings are very strong, very clear, very touching. I think the nature of the piece's success is in its accessibility and, frankly, its honesty."

Thomas Hampson, Antonio Pappano and Ian Bostridge at the recording. Photograph: Riccardo Musacchio/Warner Classics

This recording for Warner Classics, marking the centenary of the composer's birth, features Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionalle di Santa Cecilia under the baton of their Music Director Antonio Pappano. It is released on 21 October; you can listen here to the entire work streamed exclusively until midday on the day of release.

Ian Bostridge, Anna Netrebko and Thomas Hampson after a performance of Britten's War Requiem at the Salzburg Festival. Photograph: Michael Grössinger

Two months after recording the Requiem, the musicians performed it at the Salzburg Festival to great acclaim - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung hailed it was one that would go down in Festival history.