The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, March 20, 1985
Verdi’s ‘Requiem’
WHETHER or not the Verdi transcendental awe or spiritual
“ Requiem” is a work which, affirmation.
playing
With the supporting
because of its very nature
stharmonic
should be reserved for the of the Guildford
awksometimes
special occasion, when exactly Orchestra
the right soloists, chorus and wardly phrased and balanced,
orchestra can be brought to- and rarely going beyond the
e,
acc
gether in the most advantag- straightforwardly
and mkness;s
:
eous circumstances, it is a score its
the
in
which
every
choral
society were neatly orystalli
quality of the four
feels the need to tackle at some varia
soloists.
time or another.
The Amernican bass-baritone
In Monday night’s Festival
Hall performance,
conducted Donnie Ray Albert, in his
by Brian Wright, the singing of British debut, gave a solid founthe
combined
Goldsmiths dation to the quartet with singChoral Union and Guildford ing that was firm, true and
shaped, if perhaps not
Philharmonic Choir brought to
sufficient resonthe music both a worthy, mostly quite
assured,
carefully
prepared ance. Even more authentic in
its
expressive
richness
and
respect,
and
an uninhibited,
rather raw but mnevertheless supple Verdian style was the
well disciplined enthusiasm. It mezzo of Jeah Rigby. Constantly
to yndesmins
their
e itly to the fiery threatening
ae confide
ros
images of the “ Dies Irae” as surely laid foundations, howto the hushed supplications of ever, was the inelegantly toned
the more reverential
passages, and often poorly controlled line
while remaining in spirit duti- g the tenor os‘tutirt Kale, while
e singing
ful and earth-bound.
e soprano Jo
For all its good intentions Ana Pidkens, though possessing
all the
vocal resourfts care for the general as weii
as the
duced
, it was a per ces,
Mwysim! dng: ;
many
nor induos?
suggested
o3
more. promise tizan
eny
ocompelling -
i
rather
'Robert Henderson