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Music

Britten’s War Requiem almost sounded like a masterpiece – but it’s isn’t, is it?

17 November 2018

9:00 AM

17 November 2018

9:00 AM

‘What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?’ We’ve heard a lot, lately, of the knell that tolls through the opening bars of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, and at Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral it was played on actual church bells. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s percussionist Graham Johns has had a set specially cast, and as he struck them video screens relayed the moment all the way down the cathedral’s length.

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