Philharmonia Orchestra

Although titled as a Requiem, Benjamin Britten’s work intersperses elements of the traditional Latin mass with settings of poems by Wilfred Owen. This juxtaposition emphasises the tragic loss of life during the First and Second World Wars (the work was composed in 1961-62), and Britten makes the contrasts all the more apparent through his emotional music and use of separate instrumental groups, who only join together in full force towards the end of the last movement as the tenor and baritone soloists sing “Let us sleep now” whilst the choruses sing “Into Paradise lead them”. This is truly one of the defining works of the twentieth century.