Decca Records recently reissued its recording of War Requiem, having preserved the fragile 1963 master tapes by baking them and digitising their contents.
In preparing the new mixes, the record label also discovered recordings of the original rehearsals, where Britten himself conducted the choir.
“Boys I know it’s first thing in the morning but please don’t make it sound like it is,” he can be heard telling the teenagers.
“Don’t make it sound nice. It’s horrid, it’s modern music.”
Hearing those comments “put me right back” in the recording studio, said Law, explaining that Britten’s use of tonal ambiguity “didn’t fit the normal frame of reference for a school choir”.
“I thought we we were supposed to sound nice,” agreed Healey. “I hadn’t really twigged that he was looking for a bit more earthiness and a bit more bite.”
“It certainly emboldened me to sing out a little more,” added Hedley Rokos, who was 16 at the time of the recording.
“And it must have suited his purpose, or he would have asked us to rebalance.”
