A powerful statement of the composer’s pacifist beliefs – composed in the shadow of the Second World War, but harking back to the carnage of the First via the war poetry of Wilfred Owen – Britten’s War Requiem today remains one of the most devastating artistic responses to conflict: a work that mourns but also rages against the senseless violence and destruction of war. Emotionally direct and uncompromising, the work retains a prophetic tone even today.
