Gianandrea Noseda conducts Britten's War Requiem — With Elena Stikhina, Mark Padmore, and Michael Volle

For his debut at the helm of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda returns to one of his favorite works, and one for which he has met with international acclaim: Benjamin Britten's monumental War Requiem. This 1962 masterwork was written for the consecration of the new cathedral in Coventry, England, built to replace the original 14th-century edifice that had been destroyed by German bombers in World War II.

Accompanied by an organ, a traditional choir and children's choir, and two orchestras, the three solo parts are taken up ably by Russian soprano Elena Stikhina, English tenor Mark Padmore, and German baritone Michael Volle, a symbol of postwar reconciliation. A soul-stirring and sometimes very painful meditation on the horror and loss of war, the War Requiem intersperses the traditional Latin text with poems by Wilfred Owen, himself a victim of the First World War.