Our Lady’s Choral Society, RTÉCO/Ó Duinn

NCH, Dublin

Verdi – Requiem

It was in 1871 that Verdi wrote, "There are so many, many Requiem Masses!!! It is useless to add one more." But, three years later, adding one more is exactly what he did. The spur was the death of the writer Alessandro Manzoni, and the Requiemwas premièred on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death.

The genesis of the Requiem involves a second great Italian creative artist. It was in 1868 that Verdi had initiated a project for a Requiem by “the most distinguished Italian composers” to be performed on the first anniversary of the death of Rossini.

The music was written, but no performance took place, and the piece remained unheard until 1988. Well, not quite: Verdi’s contribution, the Libera me, was recycled for the Requiem as we know it today.

Strange as it may seem, it took more than half a century for the work to gain a foothold in the concert repertoire. The much-quoted early jibe by Hans von Bülow about it being “an opera in ecclesiastical costume” didn’t easily shed its potency. But audiences vote with their pockets, and Thursday’s performance by Our Lady’s Choral Society with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under Proinnsías Ó Duinn was at least the 10th outing the work has had in Ireland so far this century.

Ó Duinn is an efficient conductor, and his treatment of the spectacle in the Requiem was, well, rawly spectacular. After all, the fevered onslaught of the Dies Iraeis one of the most thrilling passages in the whole of the choral repertoire.

But the efficiency of the approach had its price, and the prevailing sense of urgency resulted in a lack of breadth and flexibility. The valiant choral singers were too easily swamped by the force of the orchestral playing. They did also manage some moments of wonderful, cushioned softness, but it was achieved, as it were, under pressure.

The four soloists – Fiona Murphy, Ulrike Schneider, Peter Auty and John Molloy – all projected strongly and clearly, with Schneider’s intense, slightly smoky delivery creating the strongest sense of personal engagement.