or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
22 used & new from £3.15
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Available to Download Now
 
Buy the MP3 album for £8.99
  
 
 
 
Britten: War Requiem
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Britten: War Requiem

~ Benjamin Britten (Composer), Martyn Brabbins (Conductor), Edinburgh Cathedral Choir (Orchestra), Scottish Festival Chorus (Orchestra), Lynda Russell (Performer), et al.
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
16 new from £5.83 6 used from £3.15
Buy the MP3 album for £8.99 at the Amazon MP3 Downloads store.

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this with Tippett - A Child of Our Time ~ John Cheek

Britten: War Requiem + Tippett - A Child of Our Time
Price For Both: £13.97

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem; Four Sea Interludes

Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem; Four Sea Interludes

~ London Symphony Orchestra
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £4.98
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia On Christmas Carols, Hodie

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia On Christmas Carols, Hodie

~ Ralph Vaughan Williams
4.5 out of 5 stars (4)  £3.98
Haydn - The Creation

Haydn - The Creation

~ Academy of St Martin in the Fields
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £7.98
Elgar: The Apostles

Elgar: The Apostles

~ Sir Edward Elgar
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.98
Britten: War Requiem

Britten: War Requiem

~ Galina Vishnevskaya
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £12.58
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Performer: Lynda Russell, Thomas Randle, Michael Volle
  • Orchestra: Edinburgh Cathedral Choir, Scottish Festival Chorus
  • Conductor: Martyn Brabbins
  • Composer: Benjamin Britten
  • Audio CD (2 Sep 1996)
  • SPARS Code: DDD
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Label: Naxos
  • ASIN: B00000149X
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 86,215 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


Disc 1:

Samples
Song TitleArtist Time Price
Listen  1. War Requiem, Op. 66: Requiem aeternamLynda Russell 9:23Album Only
Listen  2. War Requiem, Op. 66: Dies iraeThomas Randle27:46Album Only
Listen  3. War Requiem, Op. 66: OffertoriumLynda Russell 9:51Album Only


Disc 2:

Samples
Song TitleArtist Time Price
Listen  1. War Requiem, Op. 66: SanctusThomas Randle11:04Album Only
Listen  2. War Requiem, Op. 66: Agnus DeiLynda Russell 3:09£0.69
Listen  3. War Requiem, Op. 66: Libera meThomas Randle23:06Album Only

On this CD:
  1. War Requiem
    Composed by Benjamin Britten
    Performed by Edinburgh Cathedral Choir, Scottish Festival Chorus, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
    with Lynda Russell, Thomas Randle, Michael Volle
    Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars True Music, 30 Sep 2006
By S. MCNALLY "machoolahan" (York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
"We laughed, knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars; when each proud fighter brags,
He wars on Death -- for lives; not men -- for flags."

Like another reviewer I first heard this when I was quite young, and despite its tritonal and sometimes arch intonality, it stuck like glue. Each time I hear it (and I'm 35 now) I hear something in it that moves me. Britten was a master of orchestral effects as the Dies Irae testifies but, exhilirating as these are it's the profound humanist anger of Wilfred Owen's poetry that first grabs you.

But then after that excoriating expression of the madness of war - set in a way that orchestrates the beauty of a male voice like nothing I've ever heard ever before, it's the quite stunning, stunning, soprano parts that stay with you. Absolutely hauntingly, disturbingly beautiful.

Arguably the finest composition of the 20th century.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WARS FOR FLAGS, 25 Sep 2005
By DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
A great deal of careful planning has gone into this production. The work calls for a separate boys' choir and chamber orchestra in addition to the main forces, and the need to convey a sense of space has been taken very seriously. Apparently no church in all Scotland was considered large enough, and the recording was finally done in a converted large workshop at the site of the old Harland and Wolff shipyard in Clydebank, only half a mile from our family home when I was a boy. I find the result outstandingly successful. The sense of space and distance must surely have been what Britten was after, and it needs to be played at a high volume setting. This will not blow you out of the room or disturb the neighbours - Britten's Requiem is a much quieter piece in general than not only Verdi's but even Mozart's. Britten takes the text that Verdi took including the Libera me prayer from the graveside service and adds the In paradisum set by Faure although not by Verdi, and intersperses it with poems by Wilfred Owen. Despite the length of the text there is comparatively little repetition of words, and the overall duration of the work is only roughly similar to Verdi's.

For all the traditional text, this is not a traditional Requiem as even Verdi's was although he had little in the way of religious conviction. Owen's poems are the spiritual core of the War Requiem, the liturgical text serving as background. When the poet asks 'All death will He annul?' I sense that Britten's answer is 'Not likely'. Creation will not rise again to answer to any judge, and what we destroy stays destroyed. The nearest we are given to a pacifist's answer to the unsolved problem is in the lines addressed to the field-gun

Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,
Great gun towering toward heaven, about to curse;
Reach at that arrogance which needs they harm,
And beat it down before its sins grow worse;
But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,
May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!

Conductor, soloists and the Scottish ensembles cover themselves with distinction from start to finish. Speeds in some of the choral episodes are on the swift side, but that gives me no problem where the choral texts are something akin to a chain of linking recitatives. The soloists are worthy successors to Britten's own, the choral work is admirable and the BBC Scottish Orchestra is a fine band indeed these days. Above all, don't be nervous or hesitant about turning the volume up if you want to get the proper impact from the careful staging of the production.

Naxos - well done again, very well done indeed. There is not a recording of this great work that I know from any source, perhaps not even from Britten himself with Pears and Fischer-Dieskau, that I could recommend ahead of this one.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Recording of Britten's Masterpiece, 3 Dec 2004
By Timothy Hooper - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is an exceptionally fine recording of Britten's great humanitarian masterpiece at a ludicrously low price. Fine performances all round and a luminous sound quality that allows the singers room to breathe. The boys choir could do to be a tad better defined in the sound picture but for the price this is an unbeatable recording that deserves a place in your collection.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad
Sonically excellent, but compared to the Britten and even Rattle recordings it feels a little rushed in places, which I found removed some of the brevity and depth of the piece... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2005 by danfreak

5.0 out of 5 stars Budget edition but very good
The Naxos version of Britten's War Requiem, although a "budget" edition is superb. The rich textures of the music and various vocal ensembles are unobtrusively evident. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2004 by Mr. Richard D. L. Sargent

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Britten: War Requiem
44% buy the item featured on this page:
Britten: War Requiem 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£8.99
Britten: War Requiem
34% buy
Britten: War Requiem 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£12.58
Britten - War Requiem; Bliss - Morning Heroes
15% buy
Britten - War Requiem; Bliss - Morning Heroes
£6.98
Britten: War Requiem
4% buy
Britten: War Requiem 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£8.98
Explore similar items

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject





i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.