Decca has used the most recent digital and CEDAR technology to improve the original sound of this classic under the overall supervision of veteran technician James Lock. Very attentive and sharp ears will no doubt appreciate a subtle enhancement in clarity and definition over the previous (1985) transfers of the original Kingsway Hall recording, but on extensive A/B comparisons, using electrostatic speakers, I found only marginal improvements, so those with the older set shouldn’t worry too much that they have lost out. The chief gain is in the virtual elimination of tape hiss. Newcomers, and there should be plenty of those wanting this – one of the great performances of recording history – should acquire this new version.
The problem with the older set was that it offered poor value. Now, as an imaginative bonus, Decca – with the approval of the Britten Estate – gives us the first issue of a long rehearsal tape. This was made by the producer John Culshaw without Britten’s approval. When Culshaw presented it to the composer on his 50th birthday, Britten was ‘appalled’, considering it a betrayal of trust and ‘an unauthorised invasion of a territory exclusively his own and his performers’,’ as Donald Mitchell relates in the booklet. Now Mitchell believes that we should be allowed ‘to assess the tape as a contribution to our knowledge of him [Britten] as a performer and interpreter of his own music and to our understanding of the War Requiem itself.’
Throughout this fascinating aural document you hear evidence of Britten’s vision of his own music, his astonishing ear for timbre and intimate details, above all his wonderful encouragement of all his forces, culminating in his heart-warming words of thanks at the end of the sessions, not to mention his nice, tension-breaking sense of humour and a couple of sharp comments from Vishnevskaya, who remains unsurpassed as soprano soloist. I found all this greatly instructive and genuinely moving. One comment is particularly illuminating. Britten suggests that the two male soloists are very present on earth, humans involved in the horror of war, while the soprano soloist and the chorus represent another, ritual level of expression. The merit of this ground-breaking performance and recording is that it so arrestingly conveys Britten’s intentions. We are lucky now to have not only the composer’s personal and irreplaceable reading refurbished, but also his commentary on it suggested by the rehearsal sequences.'