MARKING Remembrance Sunday in the centenary year of the First World War, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Youth Chorus were joined by three marvellous soloists for a performance of Britten's War Requiem at the Lighthouse yesterday.

The piece was commissioned for the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed by the bombs of the Luftwaffe during the second war, and was first performed in 1962.

A setting of the Requiem Mass, the piece derives much of its power from the bitter beauty of the war poetry weaved around the Latin text - drawn from the verse of Wilfred Owen.

For yesterday's performance the three soloists hailed from England, Germany and Russia, as per Britten's original plans for the premiere.

They were tenor James Gilchrist, baritone Stephan Loges and soprano Svetlana Kasyan respectively. The latter's piercing tone and clarity carried well across the orchestra during the Latin passages, while Gilchrist and Loges brought both anger and pathos to their rendition of Owen's verse.

The youth chorus were placed, alongside the positive organ, in the balcony behind the bulk of the audience. They gave a fine rendition of the high pitched 'boys' part of the score, unsettling the audience as was the composer's intention.

Although perhaps slightly depleted in the tenors, the chorus under director Gavin Carr were in good voice for the more dramatic elements of the Dies Irae and Sanctus, and the orchestra - divided in two with an expanded percussion section - played nearly perfectly.

One of the more challenging of the popular concert settings of the Mass of the Dead, the War Requiem - strident, strange and moving - was a fitting way to remember the futility of war on a day set aside for remembering.