first British performance took place the following year, and its belated Japanese premiere was on 18 February 1956, with the composer conducting the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Not long after the New York premiere, Serge Koussevitzky conducted the work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This performance led to the Koussevitzky Music Foundations commission of Britten's opera Peter Grimes. Composition Structure The symphony is in three movements played without a break, and a performance usually lasts around 20 minutes. Britten's analysis, quoted in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra's program notes, reads: As can be seen from the following examples, two themes provide unity between the movements. The first theme is echoed in the second and third movements, in differing tempi. In addition, the fourth theme in the second movement is modified as the opening of the third. The headings of the three movements are taken from the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead, but the composition has no liturgical associations. Britten described the movements respectively as "a slow, marching lament", "a form of Dance of Death" and "the final resolution". All its movements have D as their tonal center. Themes I. Lacrymosa II. Dies irae III. Requiem aeternam Instrumentation The score is written for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo and alto flute ad lib.), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in B, bass clarinet in B (doubling E-flat clarinet), alto saxophone (ad lib.), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns (2 of these ad lib.), 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, side drum, cymbals, tambourine, whip, xylophone, 2 harps (second ad lib.), piano, and strings. Anti-war tone According to Herbert Glass, Britten composed the Sinfonia da Requiem as a memorial to his parents. It was also an expression of the composer's lifelong pacifism and a reaction to the darkening political developments that led eventually to the Second World War. He had, in fact, recently settled in the United States because of Britain's involvement in the war. In an article published on 27 April 1940, he told the New York Sun, "I'm making it just as anti-war as possible ... I don't believe you can express social or political or economic theories in music, but by coupling new music with well-known musical phrases, I think it's possible to get over certain ideas ... all I'm sure of is my own anti-war conviction as I write it." Britten's politically themed works before 1939 had