“Beethoven’s Ninth made the [Best of 2010] list ... with an ‘Ode to Joy’ finale that brought down the house.”








Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

The Providence Singers
Chorus Pro Musica
Boston Children’s Chorus
New England Philharmonic

War Requiem

Betsy Burleigh  Artistic Director
Betsy Burleigh  Music Director
Anthony Trecek-King  Artistic Director
Richard Pittman  Music Director
Sarah Pelletier Soprano  |  Frank Kelley Tenor  |  Sumner Thompson Baritone

3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 4, 2012
Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul   Providence, Rhode Island
Purchase tickets online  |  Travel directions

Also performed 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2012
Cathedral of the Holy Cross   Boston, Massachusetts
Boston tickets: www.nephilharmonic.org


“My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. ... All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.”

— Wilfred Owen

Benjamin Britten
(1913–1976)

War Requiem  (1962)
Commissioned for the Festival to Celebrate the Consecration of St. Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry

Incorporating the Latin Missa pro Defunctis and nine poems by Wilfred Owen

Full text (English and Latin)
Notes and questions  by Thomas Brooks
Of war and music  An essay by David Parker