Sinfonia da Requiem

Composed in 1940, Britten’s largest purely orchestral work for the concert hall was written to a commission from the Japanese government for a work in honour of the 2,600th anniversary of the Mikado dynasty. It was, however, rejected by the Japanese authorities who deemed Britten’s use of Christian liturgical movement titles an insult. Ostensibly written as a requiem memorial to his parents, the Sinfonia was also Britten’s reaction to the developing menace of the war which evoked some of his most powerful orchestral writing.