The Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus tackled Berlioz’s Requiem in a concert Tuesday night at Symphony Hall. Berlioz’s masterpiece, Grande Messe des Morts, is a massive ninety-minute work that was originally orchestrated for almost 400 musicians. The BU Orchestra and Chorus filled the stage with over two hundred choristers and over one hundred instrumentalists.
The Requiem opened with a tender, ascending second violin melody built upon by other instruments to create a full, smooth, and gently ominous sound. The chorus entrance floated brilliantly above the orchestra as each voice part exchanged the staccato chromatic descent of the syllables of “requiem.” The chorus’ powerful sound was deceptively quiet; they unexpectedly released their true forte sound in a dramatic and thrilling moment that foreshadowed the magnitude and dynamism of this performance of the Requiem.
Guest conductor Andrew Litton led the orchestra and chorus with glowing stateliness. As he held the ensemble in fermata at the loudest and most grand moments, his arms were extended fully as if he were feeling the wind of the sound blow over him. Berlioz’s Requiem is particularly challenging to conduct during the Dies Irae and Rex Tremendae movements, when brass ensembles from each end of the hall join in tremendous fanfare with the orchestra and chorus. As the brass ensembles were first sounded in the Dies Irae, Symphony Hall triumphantly came alive as though the roof was opening up to the sky. The brass ensembles were well synchronized and the effect on the audience was nothing less than exhilarating. As Litton turned to face the audience and the brass in the balconies, he beamed with passion and enthusiastically mouthed the beats with the brass, and never lost a beat.
Berlioz’s Requiem is considered to be one of the least religious requiems, written originally to commemorate French soldiers killed in political struggles between 1789 and 1830. Commissioned by the new, more sympathetic French government at the time, it was first performed at the Chapel of Saint Louis at the Invalides for an audience mainly consisting of military corps, lit by thousands of candles. With this in mind, one can hear the many moods Berlioz incorporated into his requiem: triumphant, pious, foreboding and sorrowful. Throughout the Requiem, the chorus and orchestra executed shifts in mood deftly, preserving the most animated exultations for the right moments, while maintaining forward motion and anticipation in between. At those elated moments, it was exciting to see smiles on the faces of many singers.