Nearly 100 years after its release, an early pacifist film is brought to life with a score by Olga Neuwirth.
The visionary film-maker Alfred Machin’s Maudite soit la guerre is one of the earliest anti-war films, released in 1914 just one month before the outbreak of the First World War.
Almost a century later, in 2013, Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth was compelled to write a score for the film, fusing traditional silent-film piano accompaniments with brusque strings and creeping electric guitar to bring its spirit to life.
Maudite soit la guerre 'reminds us how valuable, fragile and finite life is' says Neuwirth.
Performers
London SinfoniettaGerry Cornelius conductor
Alan Ewing reciter
Repertoire
Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon for reciter, piano & string quartet, Op.41Olga Neuwirth: Maudite soit la guerre (War Requiem) - film score to the 1914 silent film by Alfred Machin
