Clive Marks (S, 69-74) Britten's
Clive Marks writes:
I had the pleasure of being a boarder on School House from 1969-74.
When it was David Annett's memorial service I brought up a whole load of memorabilia for the archive and now find myself in the situation of wishing to donate two more items to the school, if wanted.
I was lucky enough to spend a few years singing with the London Symphony Chorus, sometimes alongside my O.V. contemporary Nigel Partington, and made several recordings. I find that I have spare copies of our recordings of:
Elgar's "Caractacus";
Britten's "War Requiem / Ballad of Heroes / Sinfonia da Requiem".
If your music department would like these recordings I will gladly send them to you.
The Britten recording was an extraordinary experience. At the first Gulf war, Saddam Hussein was getting out of hand and there was talk of conscription, especially for those of military age and those in the medical field. Muggins here fitted the bill.
On the morning when it was announced that Operation Desert Shield had started I got downstairs (7a.m.) to see that a white envelope had been pushed through my letter box (my postman would normally arrive at about 11a.m., so why had this letter arrived so early?!) Call-up papers?
After making myself a cup of tea I gingerly opened the envelope to read that it was indeed a call-up but one from the LSC to help with a recording of Britten's "War Requiem". What amazing timing.
The rehearsals then proceeded and there was to be a concert performance, at the Barbican Centre, the night before the recordings started. That turned out to be the day when Saddam Hussein had the ultimatum to leave Kuwait or unspecified consequences would follow. That deadline ended at 7.30 while the concert had started at 7. The atmosphere in the concert hall was electrifying with no one knowing what was happening in the Gulf or to our men out there.
The piece ends with the orchestra having stopped playing, the conductor has stopped conducting and the choir then fades out as each member runs out of breath. There is therefore no grand gesture from the conductor to mark the end and the audience is left suspended in the contemplative mood of the ending. There was total silence in the hall and no one dared to move. It was one of those rare moments when everyone was on the same thought creating a unique experience.
Eventually a chair creaked and the atmosphere was broken.
The next day we started the recording in a beautiful Lutyens church dedicated to the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, St Jude. We were lucky enough to have one of the soloists from the piece's premiere working with us and she was standing right next to me for several takes. The atmosphere throughout the recording bristled with tension and everyone performed like they had never done before.
Operation Desert Storm took 100 hours to boot Saddam out of Kuwait, by which time we had finished recording the War Requiem and then we went back the next day to record, most appropriately "Ballad of Heroes", a piece which had never been recorded before.
A few years later I was sitting doing the ironing while listening to a Radio 4 travel programme about the bridge over the river Kwai. While the commentator was talking about the tragedy of the bridge one could hear Britten's "War Requiem" in the background which came to the fore as the commentator finished. The transition was seamless and left me stunned at the poignancy of the music with tears just streaming down my face. The shock came when I learnt that it was our own recording that I had been listening to!
So that's this O.V.'s story/connection with this particular recording on offer to you.
(2011)