Grande messe des morts

[Guest]

I'm delighted to see this performance from St Paul's is being broadcast next Tuesday, and good luck to the sound engineers! I just hope they won't pull back on the crescendos.

[Petrushka]

I'm delighted to see this performance from St Paul's is being broadcast next Tuesday, and good luck to the sound engineers! I just hope they won't pull back on the crescendos.

I went to a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at St Paul's several years ago (the one on DVD BBCSO/Andrew Davis) and couldn't hear a thing. Swore I'd never attend a concert performance there again. Fantastic visual setting but it's a church not a concert hall!

[AmpH]

I went to a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at St Paul's several years ago (the one on DVD BBCSO/Andrew Davis) and couldn't hear a thing. Swore I'd never attend a concert performance there again. Fantastic visual setting but it's a church not a concert hall!

I had a similar experience experience, some years ago, at a performance of Britten's War Requiem in St Paul's which was conducted by the late Richard Hickox, where the acoustics did the performance no favours at all. Like the Britten, the Berlioz needs to be performed in a good concert hall such as Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

[PJPJ]

......and couldn't hear a thing.

I'm not sure the performers can hear much, either; concerts for them must be a bit of a nightmare.

[Flosshilde]

Well, the crescendo just past (28 minutes in) was pretty spectacular. I think a piece like this needs a fairly reverberant acoustic - it's not subtle! The note on the Radio3 website suggests that the cavernous acoustics of St Paul's are not unlike those of Les Invalides in Paris, where the piece was first heard in 1837.


And a splendid dying echo at 33 minutes.

[vinteuil]

. I think a piece like this needs a fairly reverberant acoustic - it's not subtle! The note on the Radio3 website suggests that the cavernous acoustics of St Paul's are not unlike those of Les Invalides in Paris, where the piece was first heard in 1837.


.

I agree. Cairns writes: "Though the Requiem belongs to what he called his architectural works, designed for large resonant buildings, and marked not by the "Berliozian" characteristics of complex, upredictable rhythms, lyrical intensity, swift changes of mood and mercurial variations of instrumental colour, - but by broad effects and slow-moving progressions, - it too has its vividly scored imagery.... " [Berlioz, vol ii, p 137.]

Can't hear the ophicleides tho'

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, the crescendo just past (28 minutes in) was pretty spectacular. I think a piece like this needs a fairly reverberant acoustic - it's not subtle! The note on the Radio3 website suggests that the cavernous acoustics of St Paul's are not unlike those of Les Invalides in Paris, where the piece was first heard in 1837.


And a splendid dying echo at 33 minutes.

Taking a break from the RFH live video stream (there's a nasty clicking on the sound) to hear some of this: sounds splendid on my big system Sounds a fine performance, and as you say, marvellous lengthy reverb after big climaxes!

Amazing to have two such epic works beaming live from each side of the Thames this evening! Talk about an embarras de richesses.... (They've fixed the sound from the RFH now)

[Nick Armstrong]

Can't hear the ophicleides tho'

I know

[Flosshilde]

Taking a break from the RFH live video stream (there's a nasty clicking on the sound) to hear some of this: sounds splendid on my big system Sounds a fine performance, and as you say, marvellous lengthy reverb after big climaxes!

Wish I could have been there (at St Paul's). Although, as I said on the 'Church administration' thread, I would have objected to be press-ganged into ofering a prayer to god before nthe Berlioz started.

[johnb]

Sorry for not being part of the emerging consensus but I thought the massive reverberation swamped absolutely everything and made the whole thing into one great mush. If you didn't already know (and, in my case, love) the piece you would have absolutely know idea what on earth was going on.

I know it must have been a challenging broadcast for the on-site sound engineers (who, of course, are contracted out) but I can't help wondering whether this was somewhat beyond their capabilities.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I was at St Paul's last night and it was a truly spectacular experience which you just couldn't recreate in the concert hall. Yes, it's a cavernous space and I was extremely luckily to have a central seat near the front of the nave (a dozen rows back), so I was caught in the glorious cross-fire from the brass (playing from the galleries). The sight (and sound) of ten timpanists in the 'Tuba mirum' was awesome; spine-tingles, goosebumps... the lot.

Wish I could have been there (at St Paul's). Although, as I said on the 'Church administration' thread, I would have objected to be press-ganged into ofering a prayer to god before nthe Berlioz started.

Yes, I heard tonight's prayer and thought that yesterday's was much simpler and more touching... something along the lines of 'let us close our minds to the business of today and open our ears and hearts to the music ahead', which I thought was most apt.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was at St Paul's last night and it was a truly spectacular experience which you just couldn't recreate in the concert hall. Yes, it's a cavernous space and I was extremely luckily to have a central seat near the front of the nave (a dozen rows back), so I was caught in the glorious cross-fire from the brass (playing from the galleries). The sight (and sound) of ten timpanists in the 'Tuba mirum' was awesome; spine-tingles, goosebumps... the lot.

All I can say is.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG63OtsKC7k

[Vile Consort]

Sorry for not being part of the emerging consensus but I thought the massive reverberation swamped absolutely everything and made the whole thing into one great mush. If you didn't already know (and, in my case, love) the piece you would have absolutely know idea what on earth was going on.

I know it must have been a challenging broadcast for the on-site sound engineers (who, of course, are contracted out) but I can't help wondering whether this was somewhat beyond their capabilities.

I think you will find the reverberation is caused by the building, not the engineers.

Should the engineers, faced with a concert in a tremendously lively acoustic, try to make it sound like it was recorded in a dry acoustic? Surely not: they should be trying to convey something of the aural experience the audience in the building are having, reverberation and all. Furthermore, the conductor (if he is any good) will have taken the acoustic into account when setting tempi and making pauses for the reverberation to die away: to eliminate the reverberation would make the performance sound most peculiar.

Like a previous poster, I have been to performances in St Paul's where the reverberation made the music virtually inaudible. I thought the engineers managed to steer an excellent middle course between that and a completely false clarity that nobody in the building experienced.

[Flosshilde]

Quite; what I heard wasn't mush, so either the engineers were better than johnb thought, or the performance allowed for the building, as Vile Consort suggests. Sometimes a piece needs more than perfect acoustic clarity to make its effect, and a performance is more than the sum of the notes.

[Panjandrum]

I was at St Paul's last night and it was a truly spectacular experience which you just couldn't recreate in the concert hall. Yes, it's a cavernous space and I was extremely luckily to have a central seat near the front of the nave (a dozen rows back), so I was caught in the glorious cross-fire from the brass (playing from the galleries). The sight (and sound) of ten timpanists in the 'Tuba mirum' was awesome; spine-tingles, goosebumps... the lot.

Congratulations on being re-Tweeted by Radio 3, IGI!