Saturday 19 January 2019, 8.00pm
KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL

Britten War Requiem

Cambridge University Orchestra
Cambridge University Sinfonia
Choirs of Clare, Jesus, Selwyn and Trinity Colleges
Cambridge University Chamber Choir

Graham Ross conductor
Natalya Romaniw soprano
Ed Lyon tenor
Gareth John bass

Tickets: £35, £30, £20, £6
Students and under-18s: £31, £26, £16 or £5 on the door, subject to availability
Available here

This is a concert not to be missed, and we eagerly await the skilled playing of the Cambridge University Orchestra, joined by members of the Cambridge University Sinfonia, the Cambridge University Chamber Choir, and Choirs of Clare, Jesus, Selwyn and Trinity Colleges under the baton of Graham Ross and with soloists Natalya Romaniw, the first person ever to win both the Loveday Song Prize and first prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Ed Lyon, one of Britain’s most sought-after and versatile tenors, and Gareth John, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and rising opera star with organizations including the Welsh National Opera.

It is difficult to overstate the immensity and the musical and emotional impact of Britten’s War Requiem, a piece commissioned for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral and dedicated to four men who lost their lives because of the war. Britten weaves together the traditional Latin Mass and poetry by Wilfred Owen and heavily features the unifying motif of the tritone, a haunting and unresolved interval.

Calling upon a symphony orchestra, a chamber ensemble, a large-scale choir, a boys’ choir, and three soloists, which only unify in the final minutes of the piece, the War Requiem ends at rest with a pleading sense of hope after vividly reminding us of the beautiful terrors of war and loss.