Verdi's Requiem

In the evening Mary Beth and I went to the Canon Center for this big joint concert from Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Opera Memphis and the University of Mississippi Choir of Verdi's Requiem. They started with Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, so about eight minutes of just the strings playing while everyone else is onstage. I thought the two pieces went into each other nicely. Towards the end this note the violas (I think) were playing really soared into sounding like it was coming from a choir. Okay, and then they went straight into the Requiem. I don't know what I was expecting, but this definitely blew whatever that was away. I mean, this thing is fucking massive! So you have a full and large orchestra (I mean, six basses if that gives you an idea...I've seen other works with that many basses but not so many and they were also really large). Then you have a double choir in the back of the stage. Then you have four operatic soloists up front. The singers were apparently pretty big deals for contemporary opera vocals (I don't know much about that kind of thing, but if you do then I guess you'll know): Lauren Margison soprano, Jamie Barton alto, Limmie Pulliam tenor, and Kenneth Kellogg bass. Once again, I had kind of an experience I had during the Brahms where there was one section that kind sounded like jazz. One of the wind instruments having this prominent part that's kind winding and reminded me a little of the theme from The Conversation. Anyway, as a whole this Requiem is just massive. I mean, of course with all of the musicians and singers you have. But then stylistically it just blends all these different elements. The operatic vocal soloists make it feel very operatic. The choirs make it feel very churchy and choral. The orchestra makes it feel very post-Beethoven dramatically symphonic. And not just because those are the instruments, musically it all has those feelings and it pulls in these different directions but kind of coheres as this unique thing. I feel the orchestra pulls it into ultimately feeling like a big symphony with all these elements. And that symphonic part did not disappoint! I mean, when it's dramatic, it is all stops out bombastic and powerful (in the best way), especially in the long dies irae section. And if you like percussion, you're gonna get some goddamn percussion here! There's also one section where in addition to the four trumpets onstage, you have four trumpets offstage out on the balcony in the audience (those kinds of effects are always fun). During that part, the bass singer kept looking up towards the trumpeters with this kinda "oh yeah" look. There's probably more detail that I'm forgetting to mention, but it was a pretty great piece and experience.