Britten's War Requiem: from the archiveShare on TwitterShare on Facebook

The impact of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is discussed as part of a BBC documentary examining the course of musical life in the UK immediately after the Second World War.

Classic Britannia, part of a BBC documentary strand shown in 2007, also features an excerpt from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s original performance of the piece in 1962, which took place in Coventry Cathedral which had been devastated by Nazi bombers in 1940.

The work was recently performed again by the CBSO to mark the 50th anniversary of the new cathedral’s opening on a site next to the ruins of the original.