THE BRITISH PROJECT

The winners of Gramophone’s Recording of the Year 2020, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra release their new album, performing Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem.

In addition to marking the work’s 80th anniversary and celebrating the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s centenary year, this recording also allows listeners the chance to reflect on Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla’s critically acclaimed artistic partnership with her Birmingham colleagues. The 34-year-old Lithuanian conductor says: “This incredible orchestra gave the world premiere of Britten’s War Requiem in 1962, a piece that includes clear references to Sinfonia da Requiem. (…) This new recording shows how musicians in our troubled world identify so closely with the emotions of a piece written while Europe was being torn apart by Hitler and Stalin. Sinfonia da Requiem sounds a warning against aggression and hatred. But it also offers a sense of comfort and hope at its end. I think what it has to tell us is as important now as it was 80 years ago."