Britten's instant success
Sir: Peter Phillips (Arts, 14 February) is wrong to claim that no new work has become an instant part of the concert repertory for many years, and that the last time it happened the music was probably written by Bartok or Stravinsky.
Britten's War Requiem, which was pre- miered at the Coventry Festival in 1962, won huge and immediate popularity and was per- formed more times in its first year than any major piece since Elgar's First Symphony. I was present at its first four performances, and have heard many since, including sever- al in which my wife sang in the choir.
The launching of the War Requiem in response to a commission for the consecra- tion of Coventry's new cathedral was beyond any question 'big news' (so much so that the late critic of the Times effectively reviewed it from the score, before anyone had heard a note of the music). So, for that matter, were the first performances of Mahler's Tenth, completed by Deryck Cooke, and now the controversial Elgar Third, which made Today and the BBC tele- vision news. Not exactly 'new' works, but hardly the normal stuff of news coverage.
Richard Last
Tiverton, The Ridge, Woking, Surrey
Previous page
