the preeminence of the sung word

August 1, 2003 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Even before the first note of Verdi's Requiem was heard in the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood on Friday, August 1, 2003, the wonderment of art had begun via the spectacle on the brightly lighted stage: under the precisely sloping matte black acoustic panels three hundred people dressed in white and black, arrayed half in deep widening curves below and broad high wrapping rows above. They showed ten thousand edges, shapes, and contours; the half in curves hold crafted instruments, the rows above will sing.

Giuseppe Verdi composed his requiem mass in praise of his hero, the writer Alessandro Manzoni, who died in 1873, and he conducted its first performance, on the first anniversay of Manzoni's death, at the Church of St. Mark's in Milan. Using the structure of the Latin mass and the setting of the church, Verdi composed this magnificent operatic work which, as Stephen Ledbetter writes in his program notes, "...reaffirms Verdi's steadfast belief that...orchestral music may be important, but the significance of the voice, of the sung word, remains paramount."

Under the direction of Rafael Fruebeck de Burgos, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, conducted by John Oliver, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with soloists Sondra Radvanovsky, Yvonne Naef, Richard Leech, and John Relyea produced a work of stunning beauty for an audience missing its lawn contingent because of a dayful of rain.

Although the scale of this composition is grand and it is full of great big aural eruptions, there is magic, or miracle, in its lightest, softest sounds, as when during the Offertorio the words just sung lightly by the soprano are mimicked by the strings - an effect that takes your breath away.

The pairs of trumpeters on the flanks of the audience after the Dies irae created another wonderful effect: making a connection between the audience and the world outside and at the same time creating a dialogue with the musicians on stage.

We're in agreement with Verdi on the preeminence of the sung word and delighted to be in the midst of its celebration here this summer, with two operas and Beethoven's Ninth in the next few weeks to come and Alexander Nevsky and Brahms' A German Requiem just weeks past.

Tanglewood | www.bso.org.
Tanglewood ticket info: B.S.O. ticket info.; or SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200.
For brochures, write to: Tanglewood Brochure, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 02115.