Choral, Britten (composer)
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Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
RecommendedGalina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) & Simon Preston (organ)
London Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Highgate School Choir & The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten
Britten was writing personally for three muses who had all shared the wartime experience...His incandescent commitment to pacificism and horror at the failure of humanism blazes forth...As you... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, November 2009, First Choice
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1960s
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Choral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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It’s the breadth – not just of repertoire but of sound, technique and approach – that makes it so arrestingly excellent… The musicianship here is dazzling, and nowhere more so than in Britten’s... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2005, Editor's Choice
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Pitch-perfect harmonies, in dreamily sumptuous sonics. —
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Britten: A Ceremony of Carols & St Nicolas
RecommendedSally Pryce (harp), Katherine Watson (soprano) & Zoë Brown (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor)
Trinity College Choir Cambridge, City of London Sinfonia, Holst Singers & Temple Church Choristers, Stephen Layton
The clear-toned adult voices of the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, highlight qualities in the work often missed when performed by the more usual boys' choir...Perhaps Trinity sound too... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 3rd December 2012
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2012, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Britten: Spring Symphony, Sinfonia da Requiem, the Young Person's Guide To the Orchestra
Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Alice Coote (mezzo), Allan Clayton (tenor), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
There are infinite possibilities in choice of Britten orchestral/ choral works on a single album, and none could be better played and sung, or a better choice to introduce someone to his genius...Rattle’s... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
RecommendedJames O'Donnell (organ), Sioned Williams (harp)
Choir of Westminster Cathedral, David Hill
A Ceremony of Carols sets nine medieval and 16th-century poems between the 'Hodie' of the plainsong Vespers. The sole accompanying instrument is a harp, but given the right acoustic, sensitive... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, December 2004, Also Recommended
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Sometimes the best discoveries in music aren’t pieces that you’ve never heard before, but those you have, made new by remarkable interpretations…At the recital’s heart is a breath-catching performance... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Editor's Choice, October 2017
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Britten: War Requiem
RecommendedHeather Harper (soprano), Philip Langridge (tenor), John Shirley-Quirk (bass-baritone), Martyn Hill (tenor)
Choristers of St Paul`s Cathedral, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Richard Hickox
Britten's War Requiem is the composer's most public statement of his pacifism.
The work is cast in six movements and calls for massive forces: full chorus, soprano soloist and full orchestra... —Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1992, Winner - Choral
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Gramophone Awards, 1992, Winner - Engineering
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Building a Library, June 2017, Also Recommended
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Benjamin Britten: Canticles
James Way (tenor), Natalie Burch (piano), Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo), Annemarie Federle (horn), Hugh Cutting (countertenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone), Alis Huws (harp)
In ‘Canticle I’ the English tenor James Way is generally fierier than Pears, if a little less punctilious in voicing the melismas Britten typically writes into the vocal part...Interpretively... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2025 Shortlist, Song
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