Petroc on Verdi's Requiem
Post categories: BBC Proms
|00:30 UK Time, Friday, 29 July 2011
I sensed the groups were a little wary of each other at rehearsal, watching for signs of different methods of preparation, checking the strength of one choirs altos verses another’s tenors. Was there even a little healthy competition between the ensembles, their respective choral directors looking on like proud fathers on sports day ?
Seems hard to believe there wasn’t - and any edge or creative tension that gave was surely well worth it; it was an amazing event, thrilling from beginning to end. ‘I felt I was witnessing a classic performance of this great piece’ wrote Ivan Hewitt in the Daily Telegraph; in the Guardian Tim Ashley had a few problems with the soloists, but loved the chorus, who ‘unleashed a crushing sonic weight at full throttle, though the sounds that linger most in the memory, perhaps, were the quieter passages, suggestive of great crowds murmuring in terror.’
Having done my TV link, I quietly slipped off-stage before conductor Semyon Bychkov strode on to the platform. I had planned to stand at the back of one of the boxes accommodating a TV camera, but realised that would be impossible without a noisy unlocking of the door. So I headed up to the gallery, which turned out to be perhaps the best place to experience the full majesty of Verdi’s great work. It’s the first time I’ve been up there this season, and I’d forgotten how good the atmosphere is. Some listeners lean at the rail, some sit on cushions or blankets, shoes removed, others are fully prostrate. There’s space to move around, none of the crush of the arena on a busy night, and the sound seems to be almost perfectly balanced by the time it reaches you, reflecting off the sonic domes and drifting through the arches.
There is also the pleasure of looking over the Royal Albert Hall on a busy night. From the gallery you get a real sense of scale, of the packed stage, the ranks of chorus, the vertiginous rake of the circle. Looking down at the arena I was reminded of seeing a Mosque packed for Friday prayers. Although they were standing, from above it looked as if the Prommers were kneeling, supplicants worshipping at the altar of classical music.
Hearing Verdi’s Requiem sounding so fine in the gallery has made me think about the acoustic versatility of the Royal Albert Hall. Sure it’s not perfect, but given the sheer variety of concerts it hosts, during the Proms alone, it seems to do pretty well. I was thinking more about the Schubert Quintet performed last week, and how fine that sounded in the hall. The players told me they were performing at same volume they would use if they were in the Wigmore. So we had to concentrate, listen harder. Collectively the audience leant forward, avoided coughing or rustling too much, and let our ears tune into to what was a relatively low decibel level. A hall that can cope with a quintet, and a Verdi Requiem with near 500 performers, is a pretty amazing place.
BBC 4 broadcast Verdi’s Requiem on August 21st; the Radio 3 broadcast is still available to listen to here.
Comment number 1.
At 10:49 1st Aug 2011, smokinggnu wrote:"After months of independent preparation, suddenly the great forces massed together."
Ahem. In fact, that would have been at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading on the Friday before the Prom (you'd have to ask the Proms organisers why there and then).
A feature about the preparation and logistics involved in these performances would I suspect be enlightening for many.
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