Hour of Lead
Eve de Castro-Robinson (1956-)

This work takes its title from a powerful Emily Dickinson poem, quoted below for full impact:

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

Hour of Lead comprises a set of movements on the notion of pain, whether stabbing, bittersweet, profound, or releasing, allowing a full range of sonorities to be heard from the orchestra. It is also inspired by Ode to Hilma, the mighty, meditative canvases by Aotearoa painter Julia Morison shown this year in Wellington’s City gallery.

Preceding Britten’s War Requiem in this programme, it is a sombre reminder of life’s fragility, yet concludes on a note of defiance

War Requiem
Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)

Britten was steeped in the English choral tradition and its liturgical music. In 1962, he was able to fulfil his long-held desire to compose a large‑scale choral work when he was asked to provide music for the dedication of Coventry Cathedral, rebuilt after Luftwaffe bombs Coventry’s beloved 14th-century Cathedral. An important symbolic occasion, it allowed Britten to air in public his pacifist beliefs and his faith in humanity’s capacity for compassion. In a break from tradition, he blended the traditional Latin mass for the dead with nine of Wilfred Owens’ poems from WW1. In Britten’s own words, he offered the War Requiem as “an act of reparation”. On the title page of the score, he quoted the poet, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity …All a poet can do today is warn.”

The Requiem requires huge forces: a very large orchestra, a smaller chamber orchestra which accompanies the soloists, two organs, three soloists, main chorus, and boys’ choir. When it was first recorded, the Requiem sold 200,000 copies within five months — a rare example of a contemporary work that was immediately embraced by the public.

Stravinsky noticed, and sniped, "Behold the critics as they vie in abasement before the wonder of native-born genius. Kleenex at the ready, and feeling as though one had failed to stand up for God Save The Queen, one goes from the critics to the music…”

Britten could give as well as take, saying of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, "I liked the opera very much. Everything but the music."