Music lovers to mark 150 years of Verdi’s Requiem
The Edinburgh Festival Chorus takes to the stage this weekend to mark the 150th anniversary of Verdi’s Requiem.
Made up of 130 volunteer singers from across the Capital and beyond, the Chorus will be performing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Usher Hall on Sunday, under the baton of the orchestra’s chief conductor, Ryan Wigglesworth.
Often described as being the “choral backbone” of the Edinburgh International Festival programme, the Chorus has performed annually with internationally renowned orchestras, soloists and conductors since it was founded in 1965, often performing around Scotland throughout the year. Plans are already being made to celebrate their 60th anniversary next year.
This will be the only chance to catch them ahead of this year’s Festival performance of Alexander Grechaninov’s Passion Week and another performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra. It will also be the Chorus’s first public performance since James Grossmith took over as Choir Director in September last year.
Having trained at the Royal Conservatoire, Grossmith has a strong connection to Scotland and the Chorus is excited to see what it can achieve with him at the helm.
Verdi’s Requiem – premiered in Milan in 1874 – is a highly theatrical and epic Catholic funeral mass which was written following the death of Italian poet, philosopher and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, who Verdi admired greatly.
Blazing with emotion and conceived on the grandest possible scale, Verdi’s Requiem has been described as “the greatest opera he never wrote”.
Due to the scale of the piece, requiring four soloists, a double choir and orchestra, it is generally performed as a concert rather than as a traditional mass in church.
One hundred and fifty years after its first performance, chief conductor Wigglesworth with his choral and orchestral assembly – together with a stellar team of solo singers – are said to be ready to “storm the ramparts of death itself ”.
Starting at 3pm, the performance lasts 85 minutes, with no interval.
Tickets can be booked at www.bbc.co.uk/events/efpgfx