A chorus of schoolboys who sang on a world-famous rendition of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem have been reunited, thanks to an advert in a local newspaper. The recording, made in 1963, sold 200,000 copies in just five months (almost unheard of for a classical work) and won Britten two Grammy Awards - but the choristers, from London's exclusive Highgate School, were never listed in the credits. Last year, Decca Records launched a search for the surviving members, with a notice in London's Ham & High newspaper.
Fifteen of them were able to reunite in Soho on Thursday, to hear a cleaned-up version of the Requiem and relive the "gruelling" experience of recording Britten's masterpiece. "It was like going through some great storm, a great orchestral storm," recalled Tim Healey, who was 13 at the time of the original recording. "By the time it was over, I was quite glad it was over - but then you look back and think, 'That was pretty amazing'.
" Former chorister Nigel Law added: "I still remember the first day, which was a washout, thanks to [Russian soprano] Galina Vishnevskaya throwing a completely and utter wobbly. "It was quite disturbing, hearing this woman scream." According to producer John Culshaw, Vishnevskaya was upset because she had been placed on a balcony, next to the adolescent choirboys.
She had failed to appreciate that the work was conceived on different physical planes, with the soprano and the choir raised above the other singers, representing heaven. Instead, sh.