Verdi Requiem

16 March 2024

Saturday’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem by Salisbury Musical Society (SMS) and the Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra (COG) was a sell-out – and deserved to be. Like Messiah or the B Minor Mass, the work is one that has a loyal following and on this occasion the loyal followers were not disappointed. After the applause had died down at the end, the air in my part of the nave was thick with superlatives.  

The three main contributors – choir, orchestra and soloists – were all on top form and complemented each other perfectly. It is very hard to balance the sound in the Cathedral, and in the past I’ve felt that COG have been over-enthusiastic and overwhelmed the choir. This, I’m happy to say, was not the case on Saturday. Or, at least, not in my part of the Cathedral. There are acoustic hot spots in the nave and I was lucky to be sitting in one of them. I’d feared that the choir might be submerged by the orchestra in the Dies Irae, perhaps the most dramatic moment in the whole piece, but this didn’t happen and, with choir and orchestra in perfect balance, the moment was indeed a thrilling one. (Or perhaps I should say moments, since Verdi repeats the Dies Irae theme at least four times. Does any other composer of requiems repeat the Dies Irae theme so often?) In quieter passages – the opening movement, for example, and the start of the Agnus Dei – where the choir was unaccompanied, or accompanied by pianissimo strings, the blend of voices was excellent.  

There were plenty of orchestral highlights. I particularly enjoyed the fanfares before the Tuba Mirum and the Sanctus, the oboe solo in the Inter Oves and the high violins at the end of the Offertorio. Then there are movements that showcase the choir. I have already mentioned the various Dies Irae outbursts, but the Sanctus is a tour force in which the choir has to battle it out with orchestra. On this occasion SMS managed to hold their own against COG – just! – with splendidly dramatic results. At other times, the choir acts as accompanist, as in the Agnus Dei, where it produced a beautifully plangent backdrop to the soprano and alto soloists. Another such moment occurs at the end, where the choir accompanies the soprano soloist in the Libera Me, having first exhausted itself in an exhilarating double fugue.  

Finally, the soloists. This was an outstanding line-up. According to the programme note, three of the soloists at the first performance in 1874 had recently sung in Aida. Last Saturday’s soloists were just as dramatic. As if proof were needed of the Requiem’s roots in opera, the contralto soloist, Jess Dandy, kept making stage gestures with her hands, not, I think, because she’d planned to but because she couldn’t hold back. I thought Jess Dandy and James Platt, the bass soloist were outstanding, not that the soprano Rachel Nicholls, and tenor, Thomas Atkins, were weaker – they weren’t – but because Verdi gave the former two the better pieces. (The tenor stood in at short notice for Paul Nilon who was advertised in the programme.) 

Stephen Lycett
Reviewer