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Article: Requiem Remembered; Britten's Brilliant Work 25 Years Later
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 31, 1987
- Author:
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On any list of the greatest music composed in this century, at
least two works related to World War II must find places near the
top: Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" and Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet
for the End of Time."
Both, curiously, have a strong though hardly conventional
religious flavor. More important, perhaps-and more typical of the
20th century-both convey the special beauty that rises out of the
deepest pain.
Britten's masterpiece had its first performance on May 30, 1962,
and passes its 25th anniversary this weekend. It was commissioned
for the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral, which replaced the
building systematically destroyed by Nazi bombing during the war.
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