In the time of Covid, any concert is an achievement in itself. This performance of Mozart’s Requiem by English National Opera under Mark Wigglesworth was unmistakably that. Originally scheduled for early November in front of socially distanced theatregoers to mark ENO’s return to its London Coliseum home, it went ahead as a pre-recorded lockdown concert from the Coliseum stage for a television and online audience. The pandemic backdrop and the proximity to Remembrance Day combined to create powerful extra context for Mozart’s unfinished last masterpiece.
Knowing the Coliseum’s sometimes cavernous acoustic, it is hard to be confident how cleanly the scrupulously separated orchestral players, and behind them the ENO chorus, all arrayed on one of the widest and deepest stages in the country, would have sounded even in a full auditorium. Watching on BBC Two, however, the Requiem sounded urgent, direct and powerful.
Principal credit for this went to the admirable Wigglesworth. His conducting combined a fine sense of scale with an instinct for dramatic immediacy, both of which are still missed at the Coliseum after his all too brief spell as music director. Unsurprisingly, the Requiem, in Süssmayr’s completion, received more of an operatic reading than one for historical performance practice, concert hall purists, and it was the better for it. Orchestra and chorus responded to their former boss’s direction with a commitment that spoke volumes. Wigglesworth’s approach had one constantly thinking about the new musical language and textures into which Mozart’s art was evolving just before his death.
ENO fielded a finely matched quarter of soloists for the occasion. Sarah Connolly and Gerald Finley contributed their familiar vocal authority and rich intelligence with text. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s lustrous soprano shone brightly and warmly in her every contribution, and Ed Lyon showed he could seize his moments with the ring of a Mozart tenor of special quality.
