Prom 39 (11.8.12): Berlioz – Requiem

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday 11 August at 7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Berlioz: Requiem (Grande messe des morts) (83 mins)

Toby Spence tenor
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Huddersfield Choral Society
London Symphony Chorus
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer conductor

Thierry Fischer's conducts his final concert as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and scales the heights of Berlioz's monumental Requiem with massive choral and orchestral forces in the vast acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall.

When Berlioz wrote his massive Requiem or "Grande mess des morts" in 1837, it took him just 3 months to write. Composing for truly overwhelming forces and first performed in the imposing church of Les Invalides in Paris, it was the dramatic possibilities of the text that excited the composer, who even reordered some of the text so as to maximize the impact. Ever the Romantic, Berlioz brings his ideals of freedom and expressive truth to his setting, alongside the deafening forces including four brass bands.

The music of Berlioz has been the focus of Thierry's six years at the helm of the orchestra. It's not just that he likes the composer, but he feels as an artist a real need to perform his music on a regular basis. Over the years they've performed the Symphonie fantastique at the Proms as well as the revolutionary Symphonie funebre et triomphale. Here at the Proms, Thierry Fischer strives to respect Berlioz's wishes in staging the work. Instead of placing the brass bands at far flung corners of the Royal Albert Hall, the force of fifty players sit around the main body of the orchestra, on stage instead of offstage, focussing the dramatic sound.

[grandchant]

Looking forward to this one. As long as the brass don't mistake the beat of course!

[rauschwerk]

Here at the Proms, Thierry Fischer strives to respect Berlioz's wishes in staging the work. Instead of placing the brass bands at far flung corners of the Royal Albert Hall, the force of fifty players sit around the main body of the orchestra, on stage instead of offstage, focussing the dramatic sound.

That's exactly what Colin Davis did in the 2000 season.

[Resurrection Man]

Is anyone going tonight? Arena Promming...me...bald, grey hair, blue shirt, 6ft chinos GSOH would like to meet. .......

[Osborn]

Arena Promming...me...bald, grey hair, blue shirt, 6ft chinos GSOH...

Male or female?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

me...bald, grey hair, blue shirt, 6ft chinos GSOH would like to meet. .......

Oh! A Des Res!

[David-G]

I greatly enjoyed this concert. This was only the second time that I have "Prommed", the first being about ten years ago. Following advice in another thread, I stood at the centre of the Arena, from where I had an excellent view and the sound was fine.

The Grand Messe is such a magnificent work, and I always enjoy it. I thought this was beautifully played.

One little niggle ... despite the enormous choral forces, I found that when the massed brass were playing, I could hardly hear the choir. That could be something to do with the hall acoustics at the spot where I was standing. But I did wonder whether it was due to the brass being on stage rather than dispersed to the corners of the hall. Perhaps if brass and choir come from different directions, the ear can separate them better than if they are located together. I would be interested to know whether other people felt similarly, or whether perhaps at other locations in the hall the choir could be heard over the brass.

I also enjoyed the pre-concert talk, which had interesting snippets of information which were new to me. Such as that the movements before the Lacrimosa have a total of 603 bars, the movements after the Lacrimosa have a total of 603 bars, and the Lacrimosa itself has 201 bars (a third of 603). This, if true, is really rather extraordinary.

I am going to listen again on the Radio 3 iplayer, and will be very interested to compare and contrast with my personal experience in the hall.

[Estelle]

I have admired Toby Spence's singing in the past, but was he suffering from an ailment in this performance? His voice was husky and he was singing falsetto at times, it seemed to me. Not at all his usual beautiful tone. I felt sorry for him.

[Dave2002]

I couldn't really see the point of having the four brass groups at the corners of the orchestra, though maybe it can improve the timing. From my seat in the stalls I could hear the difference between left and right, but not front/back.

A curious work, possibly the loudest thing I've heard in a concert. There were well over 400 singers - probably not quite as many as 500. The array of timps was also impressive - how many players were there? 8,9,10? Also the need for so many cymbal players also surprised.

Why did Berlioz write this piece?

Another odd thing, one section (was it lacrimosa? - it was!) has potentially quite a jolly tune. This doesn't seem to match the words.

Deaspite the volume, I left feeling that Symphonie Fantastique is a better work, and if I want to hear a requiem, then Verdi's is still the one. If I want to fill up an hour and a half I'd probably prefer to hear Mahler 2 or some Bruckner. Once a decade for this requiem is enough for me - though I've only heard it live twice over several decades.

[Mary Chambers]

I have admired Toby Spence's singing in the past, but was he suffering from an ailment in this performance? His voice was husky and he was singing falsetto at times, it seemed to me. Not at all his usual beautiful tone. I felt sorry for him.

I was so sad to read this. Toby Spence has only just started singing again after many months of treatment, including an operation, for thyroid cancer, something which obviously involves the throat, terrible for a singer. I listened to the Ivor Novello Prom purely because I wanted to hear him, and although he managed very well I didn't think he was quite back to normal. Same goes for the Berlioz. He managed all the high notes, but (as you confirm) there was a sense of strain. I do hope he continues to improve.

[David-G]

Why did Berlioz write this piece?

Your question is answered in the interesting note in the programme by David Cairns, http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/...rogramme-notes.

He observes:

"Berlioz’s Requiem belongs to the tradition of large-scale ceremonial works that was established in France during the years of the Revolution and Napoleon’s Consulate and Empire. Such works, by composers such as Gossec, Le Sueur, Méhul and Cherubini, were a central part of public life in those embattled times; they represented a grand idea: the idea of the Nation, the entire people of France, assembled for a solemn act of prayer and thanksgiving."

Re the massive forces, he writes:

"The four brass groups and the massed drums – the legacy of the Revolutionary tradition and the feature for which the work is notorious – are in fact used quite sparingly, appearing together in only three of the 10 movements. Their function is structural as well as purely spectacular and their effect is due precisely to the contrast they make with the austere textures of the rest of the score. For much of the time, horns are the only brass instruments to offset the pervasive sound of the large woodwind choir – the bleak, mourning sonority that is the predominant colour of the Grande messe."

People are very different! For me, the "Grand Messe" is a sublime work, which speaks deeper to me than the Verdi Requiem.

[Dave2002]

I read that too, but it doesn't seem that any particular event stimulated him to write the requiem. There does not seem to have been a commission. Maybe the times were such that Berlioz thought that such a grand piece would go down well, and actually have a chance of performance. Today's bean counters would surely discourage such ambitions!

[rauschwerk]

I couldn't really see the point of having the four brass groups at the corners of the orchestra...

I sang it in the RAH in 1969 (brass groups in the gallery) and heard it there in 2000 (brass on the platform) and to be honest I thought the former worked better.

The array of timps was also impressive - how many players were there? 8,9,10? Also the need for so many cymbal players also surprised.

Berlioz's writing for the timpani here is even more daring than in the Symphonie Fantastique. With 8 players and 13 drums he can write full chords in various positions. As for the cymbals, Berlioz was quite right in thinking that lots of them played as softly as possible is more effective than a single pair player louder.

Why did Berlioz write this piece?

He was commissioned by the Minister of the Interior. The piece was intended to be performed at a ceremony to commemorate both the revolution of 1830 and the failed attempt to assassinate King Louis-Philippe in 1835. There's more to it than that, and Berlioz had a lot of trouble exacting his fee from government officials.

Another odd thing, one section (was it Lacrimosa? - it was!) has potentially quite a jolly tune. This doesn't seem to match the words.

In a good performance at the proper tempo it does not sound in the least jolly.

Despite the volume...

One easily remembers the loudest bits, of course, but they don't last for long and in fact much of the piece (Quid sum miser, Quaerens me, Hostias) is scored with great restraint. One might add that Bruckner greatly admired Berlioz's counterpoint in this piece.

Singing this piece all those years ago (Colin Davis conducting) was one of the most thrilling events of my musical life.

[vinteuil]

He was commissioned by the Minister of the Interior. The piece was intended to be performed at a ceremony to commemorate both the revolution of 1830 and the failed attempt to assassinate King Louis-Philippe in 1835. There's more to it than that, and Berlioz had a lot of trouble exacting his fee from government officials.

Yes. In the end it became the Requiem for the Governor General of French North Africa, the comte de Damremont, and the other French soldiers killed in the taking of Constantine in Algeria from the Turks, 13 October 1837.

As Rauschwerk says, Berlioz had a real struggle in arranging for the payments for this. Eventually he received confirmation on 15 November that the Requiem would be given at the ceremony at the Invalides, the War Ministry defraying the costs of the performance to the value of 10,000 francs, and the Ministry of the Interior being responsible for the composition fee and anterior expenses. [Cairns, vol 2, p 145 etc.]

[mopsus]

I was also more or less in the middle of the Arena. I didn't think the brass drowned out the choir too much in the loud passages, but I missed the sonic effect of having them distributed around the hall. What is the evidence that Berlioz preferred the 'off-stage' brass (as described in the programme!) to be on the platform?

Adrian Partington told me that the performance was going to have a chorus of 500.

The second subject of the Lacrymosa has raised eyebrows ever since the earliest performances of the work - but I think Berlioz had a Mahler-like ability to do something profound with apparently frivolous melodies.