‘You can’t perform this work without thinking about the world around you’
22 September 2026
This autumn, more than 225 musicians, singers and students will come together to perform Benjamin Britten’s powerful War Requiem at the Grote Kerk. For the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, this is much more than a major anniversary concert marking its 200th anniversary. Project leader Jasper Grijpink: ‘Britten makes you feel what lies behind the big words we use when talking about war: individual human lives.’
Why the War Requiem in particular?
‘It is a work that overwhelms you, yet at the same time feels deeply personal. Britten combines the traditional Latin Requiem Mass with poems by Wilfred Owen, a young British poet and soldier who was killed at the front during the First World War. On the one hand, you hear this centuries-old, almost ritual text. Running through it is the voice of someone who experienced the horrific reality of war first-hand. These two worlds clash. That is what makes the work so powerful.’
The work dates from 1962. Why does it feel so relevant today?
‘War and armed conflict are very much present in the news and public debate today. For many people – including people at the Royal Conservatoire – war is not an abstract concept. It is something that affects their own lives or those of family and friends. The War Requiem does not offer a simple answer. Above all, it makes you feel what violence does to people and shows how music can offer a way of engaging with it.
‘What moves me is that, ultimately, it is also a work about reconciliation. Britten did not write a heroic epic. You hear grief, anger and powerlessness, but also compassion. That is precisely why the work remains so affecting more than sixty years after it was written.’
The Royal Conservatoire is making this a project for the entire school. Why?
‘We think it is important that students ask themselves not only how they can perform something as well as possible, but also why they are performing it. With the War Requiem, that question is almost impossible to avoid.
‘For the students who will soon be playing in the orchestra or singing in the choir, that connection is very direct. But we want to open up the conversation more widely. What do war and peace mean to a young musician? Can music say something about major conflicts and other issues in society? Can art encourage people to listen to each other differently?
‘Alongside the performance, we are therefore organising Music for Peace and Justice, an educational project that invites students to discuss their role in society. It will be a challenging and interactive week of lectures, conversations, workshops and musical contributions. It will take students out of their everyday reality and give them space to reflect on the world around them and their place within it.’
What makes this performance special?
‘The scale alone is exceptional. More than 225 people will take to the stage at the Grote Kerk: students from the Royal Conservatoire, young musicians from abroad, professional musicians, the Residentie Bachkoor and the Haags Matrozenkoor. Bringing all those people together is quite an undertaking in itself. But what I am most looking forward to is the moment when everyone sits down together for the first time and we hear what such an enormous ensemble can create.
‘In the War Requiem, bigger does not automatically mean louder. Britten can place an enormous mass of sound alongside something extremely fragile. One moment, the sound almost knocks you off your feet; the next, you are listening to a single voice or a very small ensemble. It has a powerful effect.’
And it will also be performed in The Hague.
‘For me, that adds another dimension. We are performing one of the great anti-war works of the twentieth century in a city that presents itself internationally as a city of peace and justice. And we are performing it in the Grote Kerk. I think a place like that also makes you more aware of the silence between the notes. Listening to this work together with hundreds of other people is very different from putting on a recording at home.’
What do you hope audiences will take away from the performance?
‘The best thing would be if people do not simply leave thinking, “That was impressive”, but carry the work with them for a while. You do not have to come away with a single conclusion. I do not think that is what Britten asks of you either.
‘Music reaches you in a different way from words. That is especially true with such an enormous ensemble and in a space like the Grote Kerk. Of course, you can listen to the War Requiem at home, but when you are sitting there and hear all those musicians and singers together, something different happens. It is something you really have to experience for yourself.’
Jasper Grijpink teaches at the Royal Conservatoire, is a clarinettist with the Residentie Orkest and is project leader of the War Requiem project.
WAR REQUIEM — BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Royal Conservatoire with partners from The Hague and abroad
Grote Kerk, The Hague
Saturday 17 October 2026 — 20.15
Sunday 18 October 2026 — 14.15
Sam Weller, conductor
César Ramos, conductor