BBC Proms 2011 (Concert Review - The Telegraph, 2011)
Many years ago, in what might be seen as an extreme form of “authenticity”, I sang in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem that purported to include only the music that Mozart himself wrote. It was a strange evening, and obviously a rather shorter one than we are accustomed to, ending as it did in mid-air on a dominant chord eight bars into the Lacrimosa.
A true Mozart-only performance would probably be even more fragmentary, since the Requiem’s incomplete state at Mozart’s death meant that his pupil Franz Süssmayr had to plug gaps not just in the Lacrimosa but also in other movements, as well as composing whole sections himself.
However, this fine Proms performance by the vocal ensemble Polyphony with the City of London Sinfonia under Stephen Layton was sufficiently cohesive and eloquently shaped as to render the Requiem, as finished by Süssmayr, seamless and unfailingly expressive. Polyphony is a marvellous choir, clearly defined in articulation and full-bodied in sonority, so that the fugues were crisply and energetically delivered, the moments of meditation and emotional outburst well characterised and contrasted. With persuasive solo singing from Emma Bell, Renata Pokupic ´, Ian Bostridge and Henk Neven, this was a performance of discipline but also one of impressive humanity.
The concert’s first half paired the spirit and subtlety of Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge with a striking new work by the composer who was Britten’s right-hand man in his latter years, Colin Matthews. No Man’s Land, receiving its world premiere here, is a 25-minute scena reflecting on the First World War and set to a beautifully crafted, evocative text by Christopher Reid.
The ghosts of two dead soldiers, hanging limp from barbed wire in the no man’s land between the trenches, voice their experiences of the war through a solo tenor and baritone, tellingly projected here by Bostridge and Roderick Williams. The music at the outset conjures up evanescent images that take shape as the piece progresses.
Reviewed by Geoffrey Norris
The Telegraph