LEICESTER MERCURY

18/10/00

Review: Neil Crutchley

Requiem has inspiring intensity

Verdi's Requiem is one of the great choral works of the 19th century. Its overwhelming dramatic and spiritual force cannot fail to make an impact as this performance demonstrated.

It was directed with inspiring intensity by Hilary Davan Wetton and the Philharmonia Orchestra with the combined forces of the Leicester Philharmonic Choir and the Charnwood Choral Society responded with fervent enthusiasm. The vast range of dynamics from the ear-splitting ferocity of the Dies Irae to the whispered close of the Libera Me was very impressive, as was the diction.

All four soloists were never less than effective and, as we heard in the quartet Domine Jesus, fairly well matched. Julie Kennard (soprano) was persuasive in the rapt closing bars and Catherine Wyn-Rogers outstanding in the Liber Scriptus and the opening of the Lachrymosa. Tenor Eugene Ginty's lament (Ingemisco) was appealingly contrite. Ian Caddy (bass) sang the taxing Tuber Mirum with an apt sense of awe, and although not the grandest of the Verdi basses, he gave the Confutatis genuine priestly authority.