Review: Verdi's Requiem at Cadogan Hall (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Review: Verdi's Requiem at Cadogan Hall

1:01pm Wednesday 12th May 2010 in News & Previews

Verdi’s Choral Masterpiece Given Magisterial Performance

The elegant Cadogan Hall, London’s relatively new concert venue just off Sloane Square, provided a magnificent backdrop for one of the Thames Philharmonic Choir’s most demanding challenges when it performed Verdi’s famous Requiem there on Saturday 8th May. It is not a work to be undertaken lightly. It demands a very substantial array of musical forces, considerable technical skill, passion and commanding direction. Verdi did not build his career upon sacred music. He was, in fact, a non-believer, but had been moved to initiate a requiem mass in honour of Rossini, when he died in 1868. This was a collaborative work with 12 other leading Italian composers, but regrettably the collaboration failed to come to public performance. In 1873, when the poet Manzoni died – another great Italian revered by Verdi – his contribution to the unperformed work, a mighty setting of the final Libera me,  provided the basis for a new requiem mass in honour of a man whose writing and teaching contributed so much to the construction of the then emerging nation and its language.

Verdi is, of course, celebrated for his extraordinary operatic output and as such is a legendary figure in Italian musical life. His dramatic and theatrical qualities are very much in evidence in the Requiem, a work which is generally composed of vibrant, intense colours, but not without contrasting moments of delicacy and poignancy. Under its Conductor and Artistic Director, John Bate, the Choir and the accompanying Thames Festival Orchestra rose magnificently to the demands made by this mighty work. The rich, resonant strings of the opening Requiem aeternam and the soft, ethereal voices of the female members of the Choir soon led in to the more thunderous strains of the work in the Kyrie eleison, during which the four soloists were introduced prior to the full frontal musical assault that opened the Dies irae. This constituted the core of the performance up to the interval and ended with the exquisite Lacrymosa, almost a cameo work in itself that allowed the soloists both individually and as a quartet to create a rich tapestry of music with choir and orchestra, full of invention and contrasts. The balance maintained between the various musical forces on the platform was most assured. Thanks to the conductor’s quiet authority and economy – no obvious temptation to compete with Verdi’s dramatics here - no one element was allowed to dominate. The soloists were both forceful and restrained as necessary, but always audible – even during some of the most thunderous passages; the choir provided warmth, clarity, emotional breadth and awesome power when necessary; and the Thames Festival Orchestra under Adrian Levine sensitively and skilfully adapted to the seemingly endless series of peaks and occasional plateaux of this monumental work. Mezzo soprano Heather Shipp, soprano Cheryl Enever, tenor David Newman and bass Matthew Hargreaves were outstanding, forceful presences blending in seamlessly to the greater musical whole. The second half of the performance included the highlights of the Lux aeterna, in which the male soloists and the mezzo provided some delightful and refreshingly restrained musical interplay prior to the mighty finale of the Libera me. Soprano Cheryl Enever was magnificently commanding during this last, breathtaking movement, which also provided some final opportunities for the choir to demonstrate its dynamic capabilities, both subtle chanting and full throttle passion before all was resolved in an almost whispered, plaintive final calm. Verdi’s Requiem is a very rich dish indeed, but when performed with such integrity and authority, it never became indigestible, each flavour complementing the others to produce what was a very satisfying feast. South west London is indeed very fortunate to be able to muster the musical forces capable of bringing to life such an extraordinary work.

Colin Bloxham