The Critic's Chair for Sunday 17 March 2013

Peter Mechen presents The Critic's Chair

“My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity. All a poet can do today is warn."
Those words, written by soldier and poet Wilfred Owen in a preface to a published edition of his poems, also appear at the head of the printed score of one of the twentieth century’s most powerful works, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem.

In honour of the centenary of Britten’s birth, Peter Mechen dedicates an entire programme to a recent recording of the work by The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Recorded live at the Barbican Hall in London, the performance commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the work's première in 1962.