Combining works from poet Wilfred Owen, who lost his life in the ‘war to end all wars’, with the ritual of the Latin Requiem Mass, the result is timeless and profoundly moving. Heart-wrenching harmonies, melody and orchestration brutally lay bare the reality of one human obeying an order to kill another: a passionate outcry against man’s inhumanity to man.
The BBC Philharmonic, together with Leeds Festival Chorus, City of Glasgow Chorus, Cantabile Choir and world-class soloists from both Germany and the UK, perform in the awe-inspiring space of Leeds Town Hall to commemorate the moment, 100 years ago, when the guns fell silent.
Unusually, an exhibition of photographs accompanies this performance, in Leeds Town Hall’s Brodrick Exhibition Space. Leeds Festival Chorus, with City of Glasgow Chorus and Cantabile Choir, present a touching and personal tribute to their ancestors, men and women, who served during the First World War, and to the staff and patients at Leeds’ main war hospital at Beckett Park. This has free entry.
‘My subject is War, and the Pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity... all a poet can do today is warn’ – Wilfred Owen