Page 426 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Coventry Cathedral in 1962, a recording of which is now available on CD
(review). Fifty years later to the day, they were back in the cathedral to give
an anniversary performance under their then chief conductor, Andris
Nelsons; I had the good fortune to attend that concert and it’s been
preserved on DVD and Blu-ray (review). We now list 15 recordings of the
work in our Masterworks Index, but in 1983 this Rattle recording was only
the second that the work had received: Britten’s own 1963 recording had
cast a long shadow. The recording must have been among the earliest that
Simon Rattle made with the CBSO and its Chorus. I spotted in the booklet
that the sessions began the day after a live performance in Birmingham
Town Hall.

I was very impressed with this version of War Requiem. I’ve sometimes had
reservations about Robert Tear’s singing; it seemed to me that a worrying
‘beat’ developed in his voice as his career wore on. That’s not an issue here.
He sings well and with a fine feeling for the words and music. On the
occasions that he combines with Thomas Allen they work together as a highly
effective partnership – there’s real bite in ‘Out there’. Tear uses a soft, fragile
head voice to sing ‘Move him into the sun’, which is taken slightly more
slowly than on the Britten recording, I think He’s a bit louder than Peter
Pears in the Agnus Dei – Pears is unique here - and makes a moving
contribution to ‘Strange meeting’. Sir Thomas Allen is, if anything, even more
distinguished. He conveys wonderfully the aching melancholy of ‘Bugles
sang’. At the other end of the spectrum, he sings ’Be slowly lifted up, thou
long black arm’ with a mixture of dark grandeur and menace. His
contribution to ‘Strange meeting’ is memorable.

I really like the singing of Elisabeth Söderström; in fact, cards on the table, I
prefer her to Galina Vishnevskaya on the Britten set. She is no less imposing
than her Russian peer in ‘Liber scriptus’ and, like Vishnevskaya, she’s
imperious in the Sanctus. She scores over Vishnevskaya in two ways, I think.
The great Russian soprano’s voice has quite a degree of ‘wobble’ at times
when under pressure; Söderström avoids that. Also, listen to her touching
singing in reflective passages such as the ‘Lacrymosa’; I don’t believe
Vishnevskaya matches that.

Both choirs sing very well. The CBSO Chorus, prepared by Simon Halsey,
make a consistently fine showing. As an example of their excellence, sample
the vigour and clarity with which they deliver the ‘Quam olim Abrahae’ fugue
in the ‘Domine Jesu Christe’ movement; then contrast that with their crisp
singing of the same material when it is reprised quietly a few minutes later.
The Christ Church Cathedral choristers, who at that time were trained by
Francis Grier, are well balanced in the recording and they sing very well
throughout, not least in the tricky opening of the ‘Domine Jesu Christe’.

Rattle didn’t follow the composer in using a separate ensemble to play as the
chamber orchestra. Instead, he used (as most conductors do) principal
players from the orchestra. The soloists from the CBSO do a terrific job,
accompanying the tenor and baritone soloists incisively. The main orchestra