Music Director
Marin Alsop conducts
Benjamin Britten’s War
Requiem Nov. 14–15
at the Meyerhoff.
Counterclockwise from
left: Maestra Alsop,
St. Michaels Cathedral,
Wilfred Owen, Benjamin
Britten, the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra.
people are hurting and need comfort,”
Alsop says, “music can be a refuge.” Alsop
herself says that some of her most memorable experiences in performance “have
been in the wake of tragedy.”
Music is “the language of emotions,”
says Spivey. “It helps us to mourn, to honor
those who have died. But most importantly,
it helps us find hope.”
The human response to a work like Britten’s War Requiem can happen on many
levels. “The Britten piece is immersed in
context,” says Spivey. “If you aren’t up to
speed on its history,” he says, “a quick read
orchestration,” says Spivey, that “never fails
to conjure tremendous emotion on the
part of the listener.”
When neurologist Snyder was five
years old, he played a piano piece called
Happy Days on an amateur radio show.
He remembers the announcer calling out,
of the program notes is all you need to
“Here comes Solly, he’s walking like an old
appreciate what is happening.”
man!” when the little boy entered the stuAt the same time, even without historidio. Snyder went on to study mandolin and
cal context, listeners may be moved
classical guitar, and has been a supporter
emotionally. “The hal