RSNO, 12/11/2022

Britten : War Requiem

Susanne Bernhard, soprano

Magnus Walker, tenor

Benjamin Appl, baritone

RSNO Youth Chorus

RSNO Chorus

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Thomas Søndergård

Britten's War Requiem is special under any circumstances, but there's something particularly compelling about hearing it on Remembrance Weekend.  Last night's Edinburgh concert was actually on Armistice Day.  After the final cadence had faded into nothing, Søndergård held us all there, suspended, for what must have been close to a minute's silence, as the immense pathos of the work sank into us all.  

This is the third time I've heard this work in this hall with these forces - different conductors and soloists each time, of course, but the majority of the players and adult singers must be pretty much the same.  So I was surprised to find the chorus untidy in the opening "Kyrie eleison", and quite often inaudible in other places.  On reflection, I think this was probably more a matter of where I was sitting than their actual performance.  The score does require a lot of very quiet, subtle singing, even apparently in the face of a noisy orchestra, but I suspect I would have heard it better had I been further back and perhaps higher up too, which is something I will try to bear in mind for the next time.

On the other hand, I had, almost literally, a front-row seat for the orchestra, and they were truly impressive.  They played with enormous commitment, and wonderful detail, the chamber orchestra clearly delineated, and the brass sounding sensational all through.  Also excellent, and coming through very clearly, was the Youth Chorus, bright and strong even from their off-stage position.  The main chorus, as mentioned, came across rather less consistently, for example, I could not hear the first syllable of the "Confutatis" from the male voices, and there were other places where I felt that there was a bit of a lack of clarity in the diction.  By contrast, though, there were superb moments - the muttered brouhaha of  "Pleni sunt coeli" was brilliantly managed.

The three soloists were also excellent.  Magnus Walker was a last-minute substitution for an indisposed Stuart Jackson - Jackson had managed to sing last night's concert in Edinburgh, which just indicates how last-minute Walker was - but he was more than adequate to the task, with a well-rounded timbre and good diction.  He's in his mid-twenties, at a guess, and along with baritone Benjamin Appl, who's maybe a decade older, we had two young soloists who also physically embodied the lost generation of the First World War to perfection.  Appl was outstanding, a burnished, even timbre, beautifully controlled dynamics, very clear English and magnificently expressive.  The soprano would, I think, have been better served up in the gallery with the chorus rather than ensconced towards the back of the orchestra, but Suzanne Bernhard delivered her part with grace and confidence.

Despite my reservations about the chorus, which were probably more a matter of acoustics and my position in the hall than of their actual performance, this was a fine, moving performance, from which I will particularly retain Appl's singing, and the vivid playing of the orchestra.  

[Next : 13th November]