Issued in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the
first performance of War Requiem this live 2010 recording
is somewhat unusual in that two conductors are employed. Jaap
van Zweden conducts the main orchestra and chorus while the
two male soloists and chamber orchestra are under the direction
of Reinbert de Leeuw. This follows the precedent of the first
performance when those tasks were undertaken respectively by
Meredith Davies and the composer. However, it’s unusual
to find two conductors in recordings - or in live performances
nowadays, come to that. Even Britten himself, when he came to
make the first recording of the work a few months after the
première, eschewed a second conductor on that occasion.
In his absorbing new book on the work - The Idea was Good.
The Story of Britten’s War Requiem (Coventry, 2012)
- Michael Foster lists 17 recordings of the work, not including
this present one, of which only one uses two conductors. This
is the very fine live 1969 recording by Carlo Maria Giulini
and Britten (BBCL 4046-2). I’m not sure why two conductors
were used for this performance. Possibly the male soloists and
their accompanying ensemble were situated at some distance from
the other performers, though I couldn’t detect that -
it may be audible to those who listen to the recording as an
SACD; I listened in conventional CD format. However, provided
the performance flows seamlessly - which it does here - it’s
not really an issue.
There’s a good deal to admire in this performance. The
Netherlands Radio Choir sings well. They’re quiet but
clear at the very start and in the Dies Irae their singing is
incisive but has suitable weight of tone. The ladies do well
in the ‘Recordare’ section of that movement while
the men are firm and agile in the ‘Confutatis’.
The choir also makes a very good impression in the fugal sections
of the Offertorium - I like their crispness in the quiet reprise
of the fugue. The young voices of the Netherlands Children’s
Choir also impress. Everything they sing is voiced clearly and
accurately. Their fresh, eager voices are nicely distanced in
the recording, the balance accurately judged.
The orchestral playing - both that of the full orchestra and
that of the chamber ensemble - is on a par with the level of
choral accomplishment. The chamber ensemble delivers their difficult
and often exposed music with great accuracy, the playing well
pointed.
What of the soloists? The young Russian soprano, Evelina Dobracheva,
is new to me but I see that her teachers have included Julia
Varady. She certainly brings an imperious presence to the ‘Liber
scriptus’ and ‘Rex tremendae’ solos. Hers
is the sort of timbre that Britten presumably had in mind for
these solos although it’s not quite to my taste. Later,
she does the long lines in the Benedictus, where a very different
approach is required, very well. Mark Stone does well in the
baritone role. I like his firm tone and good legato in ‘Bugles
sang’ and his diction here and elsewhere is admirably
clear. He sings expressively without overdoing things. He’s
suitably threatening at ‘Be slowly lifted up’ and
he makes a fine contribution to the long passage for the two
soloists, the setting of Owen’s Strange Meeting,
in the last movement. I’ve heard this singer on a number
of previous discs and while I’ve generally liked his singing
I’ve had a couple of minor reservations but this performance
is, I think, the best thing I’ve heard him do.
I wish I could be so enthusiastic about his tenor colleague,
Anthony Dean Griffey. The American tenor has recorded this work
before, with Kurt Masur (LPO Live 0010), though I’ve not
heard that version. He does his first solo, ‘What passing
bells’, quite well; that piece calls, in the main, for
fairly forthright singing. Doubts begin to creep in during ‘Move
him, move him into the sun’. He doesn’t float the
line in the plangent way that Peter Pears does on the Britten
recording (review),
nor in the manner of Mark Padmore in the recent 50th
anniversary performance in Coventry cathedral (review).
At the opening of this solo the instruction to the tenor in
the score is “whispered”. Griffey doesn’t
really do that, though his voice is quite soft. What unsettles
me, however, is his use of unmarked portamento at ‘Was
it for this?’ (CD 1, track 2, 23:56) He repeats the effect
a moment later at ‘the clay grew tall’. I’m
sorry, but this is ugly and since it’s not in the score
and since Peter Pears didn’t sing the passage this way
under the composer’s direction I think we can be fairly
confident that Britten didn’t want it done this way. That
said, a couple of minutes later Griffey gives great pleasure
with his mezza voce at ‘Oh what made fatuous sunbeams
toil.’ In the Offertorium - and also at certain points
in each of the last two movements some of his vowel sounds are
distinctly odd. His delivery of the tenor solo in the Agnus
Dei is rather too ‘public’; his voice lacks the
sappy lightness of Pears or Padmore. And his delivery of that
wonderfully poignant concluding phrase, ‘Dona nobis pacem’
is, frankly, prosaic; for one thing he sings it pretty much
in strict time where surely a degree of rubato is called for.
Griffey disappoints also at the start of Strange Meeting
(CD 2, track 3, 7:52). There’s no real mystery and he
certainly doesn’t get down to piano, as marked
in the score. He’s better, employing a lighter tone, at
‘Strange friend’ but by then it’s too late
and Mark Stone’s singing of the subsequent baritone solo
rather puts him in the shade. One doesn’t want a Pears
clone in this role but Pears himself and subsequent singers
such as Padmore or Philip Langridge (for Richard Hickox on Chandos)
have brought far more insight and subtlety to this role than
we experience here.
The two conductors direct their forces well. Jaap van Zweden
marshals his large forces well, realising successfully, for
example, the brazen majesty of the ‘Hosannas’ in
the Sanctus. He brings out the menace and gathering excitement
in the first few minutes of the last movement, culminating in
the huge climax (CD 2, track 3, 6:34), and the concluding full
ensemble is well handled and balanced. Reinbert de Leeuw ensures
that the chamber ensemble is incisive throughout.
The recorded sound is impressive - I only listened in conventional
CD format. There are a couple of slight presentational niggles.
One is the absurdly small gap (three seconds at most) between
the first and second movement. I also regret that, like the
Hickox recording on Chandos, the Dies Irae is presented as one
single track. Though it’s a recording made at a live performance
I couldn’t detect any audience noise and applause is mercifully
absent.
As I said at the start, there’s much to admire in this
recording and other listeners may not agree with my criticisms
of the tenor soloist. However, for all its merits, there are
better versions on the market, including the Hickox version
(CHAN8983/4) and Rattle’s EMI account (review).
The hegemony of Britten’s own Decca recording (review)
is unchallenged. The recording sounds incredibly good nearly
50 years on and the performance and interpretation are pretty
much definitive.
John Quinn
Evelina Dobracheva (soprano); Anthony Dean Griffey (tenor); Mark
Stone (baritone) 
[47:00 + 35:44] 