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Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
St Paul's Cathedral, London
25 June 1999
Gerald Finley
Christiane Oelze (standing in for an indisposed Rosa Mannion)
Philharmonia Chorus and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Marin Alsop
What the critics say
Erica Jeal for The Guardian, June 25, 1999
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,701543,00.html
Location is everything
Rarely does one walk away from a concert feeling that the star of the evening has been neither the music nor any of the performers, but the acoustic of the building.
By locating this performance in the area's greatest landmark, the City of London Festival ensured that the concert would impress the audience by its atmosphere rather than purely by the music.
While unambiguously devotional, contemplative works would sit comfortably beneath the gold mosaics of the dome, this relatively secular piece is symphonic and, at times, almost operatic, and didn't seem entirely at home in such an ornate cathedral. As Brahms once said of it: "I could easily dispense with the word 'German' and replace it with 'Human'.")
St Paul's must be one of the most difficult venues in the country in which to perform. Even the quietest chord took at least six seconds to die away after the orchestra had stopped playing.
Yet while individual notes were hard to distinguish, the joy of the work shone through in this performance by the Philharmonia Chorus and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. And the work is indeed joyful.
Verdi's Requiem ends with the fear of God. Mozart's is full of dignity. But Brahms, in both words and music, speaks of victory, hope and consolation.
Marin Alsop, a very communicative conductor, had her work cut out trying to introduce some definition. While some of the passages were inevitably a wash of notes, her clear, expansive gestures encouraged an attentive choir through each phrase, with some good articulation at the most important moments.
Gerald Finley was an assured baritone soloist. Christiane Oelze, standing in for an indisposed Rosa Mannion, put her solo across beautifully. The orchestra, on period instruments, battled bravely against the acoustic, although some sections still sounded small.
Yet the building did provide one or two entrancing effects. The first full chorus of For all Flesh is as Grass came at the audience from all sides and the cello melody which opened the whole work seemed to grow out of the very columns of the cathedral.