Stéphane Denève led a superb performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem for which no recording had fully prepared me for the overwhelming emotional impact of this concert. In War Requiem, Britten, a lifelong pacifist, juxtaposes the Latin Mass for the Dead with commentary from anti-war poems by Wilfred Owen, killed in combat in the final week of World War One.
Ian Bostridge and Roderick Williams were seated at the front of the stage just to Denève’s right, with the chamber ensemble behind and alongside. The SATB chorus was placed on a raised tier behind the orchestra, with Christine Goerke seated in front of the choristers. The only significant deviation from the composer’s scoring was the addition of girls to the offstage “distant” boy choir.
Denève masterfully shaped the performance, phrase by phrase, in both gentler and more explosive passages, drawing excellent playing. The strings were coherently synchronized, at times richly lyrical, softly quivering or building to a climax with forceful tremolos. Brass and percussion were powerful and prominent throughout, interpolating brilliant trumpet fanfares, rumbling drum-rolls, martial drum-beats, cymbal clashes, and tolling bells. Goerke’s voice boomed majestically as she intoned the Latin texts and the Master Chorale of South Florida was excellent.
The chamber ensemble players were terrific in embellishing the poetic commentary provided by Bostridge and Williams. Britten challenges the tenor with rapid-fire passages which Bostridge sang admirably (though not without some words being hard to understand), but he brought glowing clarity to softer moments. The baritone is graced with gentler texts, in which Williams was touchingly expressive. They collaborated in Owen’s back-and-forth dialogue between two soldiers, and in the ‘Offertorium’ their voices blended in gorgeous harmony, Britten quoting from his canticle Abraham and Isaac, but with Owen’s surprising twist in which “the old man . . . slew his son, and half the seed of Europe, one by one”.
The final segments of the ‘Libera me’ brought the Requiem to an emotionally charged conclusion. Bostridge and Williams ended a conversation between two adversary soldiers, now friends in death, by repeating “Let us sleep now” as Goerke and the two choruses prayed for eternal and peaceful rest. After the final “Amen”, Denève kept his hand raised as the audience sustained a very long and complete silence.
The post New World Symphony in Miami – Stéphane Denève conducts Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with Christine Goerke, Ian Bostridge & Roderick Williams appeared first on The Classical Source.
