Benjamin Britten: WAR REQUIEM

The opening of the 8th Winter Festival will be marked by British composer Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a monumental work for choir, soloists and orchestra, considered one of the most compelling and emotionally charged musical creations of the 20th century. Britten created the work for the opening of Coventry's new cathedral, destroyed during World War II, combining a Latin Mass for the dead with the secular lyricism of the English commander Wilfred Owen, who vividly depicted the horrors of the war front in verse. The War Requiem will be performed by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Charles Dutoit. The soloists are soprano Nadezhda Pavlova, tenor Ian Bostridge and baritone Matthias Goerne. The Slovenian Philharmonic Choir will be joined by the National Choir from Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, and the famous Vienna Boys Choir.