Did YOU sing for Benjamin Britten? Decca Records search for members of the original Highgate School boys choir that sang in composer’s legendary War Requiem recording in 1963

Filled with the poignant verses of First World War tragic poet Wilfred Owen, it was quickly hailed as a masterpiece.

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem was first recorded in January 1963 with the help of boys from an exclusive high school choir.

Now, 60 years later, the search continues for the original choristers to bring them together to listen to a restored version of the work.

Decca Records, which has released a new version, is calling on former choristers, now in their 70s, to speak out.

The original recording was performed in Holborn at Kingsway Hall, which was demolished in 1998.

The performance, combining a traditional Latin requiem mass with moving words from Owen, sold 200,000 copies in the first five months of its release in May 1963.

Filled with the poignant verses of First World War tragic poet Wilfred Owen, it was quickly hailed as a masterpiece. Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem was first recorded in 1963 with the help of boys from an exclusive high school choir. Above: Choir members during recording at Kingsway Hall in Holborn.

Britten began work on his composition in 1961 and it was first performed the following May for the dedication of Coventry Cathedral, which had been rebuilt after the original was destroyed during Nazi bombing during the Second World War.

The famous Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya lent her voice to the recording at Kingsway Hall, despite initially expressing her rage at having to perform with the choir.

Upset that male lead singers Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau were at the front of the group with Britten, she “lost her head”, recalls producer Jon Culshaw.

He told how she was “screaming at the top of her lungs”, adding: “You could actually be forgiven for thinking that an extremely painful process of torture was underway.”

However, the next day Vishnevskaya, who died in 2012, appeared again, and the recording went according to plan.

Composer John Rutter, 78, who was a member of the high school choir, said: “I think there are some recordings that transcend the time and place where they were first made.

“And we can still listen to them, maybe even 100 years after they were created, and still learn from them and be inspired by them.

The famous Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya lent her voice to the recording at Kingsway Hall, despite initially expressing her rage at having to perform with the choir. Above: Britten and Vishnevskaya study the score of War Requiem before recording.

Britten, a household name during his lifetime, died at the age of 63 in 1976. Above: Britten conducting the War Requiem at the 1965 Proms.

The original master tape of the performance of “War Requiem” recorded at Kingsway Hall.

“The War Requiem belongs to this small and very select family. This is a record for all time.”

There are also recordings of rehearsals. Britten can be heard telling the young singers: “Boys, I know it’s the first thing in the morning, but please don’t make it sound like it is.”

The rehearsal recording was given to Britten for his 50th birthday in November 1963 and is now being released on vinyl for the first time.

In December 1963, Britten conducted a performance of War Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall.

The Daily Mail called it “the culmination of a wonderful year for Brittan.”

It added: “He led the work with the great but modest competence that always characterizes his performances on the platform.

“What a creative idea it was to mix the liturgical solemnity and heavenly atmosphere of boyish voices with the soldier-poet Wilfred Owen’s warnings against war.”

Russian opera soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (standing in the front row) with the Bach choir during a recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at Kingsway Hall.

Michael Mayles and Peter Van Bien, members of Decca’s original recording team, were moved to tears when they heard the restored recording of the Kingsway Hall performance.

Former choristers who perform will be invited to audition at Decca’s London offices and have their photograph taken together.

The original album won two Grammy Awards and was called by Gramophone magazine “one of the most compelling performances of British music ever recorded.”

Also participating in the project were members of the Bach Choir, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Chorus and the Melos Ensemble.

Wilfred Owen wrote a series of poems about his experiences in the First World War.

His best-known works, almost all of which were published after his death, include Dulce et Decorum Est, Hymn to Doomed Youth, and Futility.

He was killed in November 1918, a week before the end of the war.

Britten, a household name during his lifetime, died at the age of 63 in 1976.