Gianandrea Noseda’s often remarkable performance of Verdi’s Requiem marked both the opening of the London Symphony Orchestra’s new season and the start of his own tenure as the orchestra’s principal guest conductor. The Italian maestro has Verdi in his system, and this was a formidable interpretation, electric from start to finish, the liturgical and operatic elements finely balanced, the central conflict between terror and consolation fiercely laid bare.
The opening introit, sliding out of silence into sound, was rapt in its fervour. But the first intimation of dread came early, in the urgent Kyrie, before Noseda unleashed the Dies Irae with almost shocking violence. Later, his rigorous attention to detail, both orchestral and choral, spoke volumes. Brass and pizzicato double basses lent real mystery to the Lux Aeterna. The complex polyphonies of the Sanctus and Libera Me, so often blurred, were exhilaratingly clear.
The playing was outstanding, and the London Symphony Chorus was on blazing form throughout. The soloists, however, weren’t quite ideally balanced, with tenor Francesco Meli tending to belt on occasion and lacking the requisite sense of introversion for the Ingemisco. The other three were tremendous, though. Bass Michele Pertusi, dark and baleful, sounded chilling in Mors Stupebit. Mezzo Daniela Barcellona was by turns hieratic and humane: the dreadful implications of the Liber Scriptus really hit home for once. And soprano Erika Grimaldi sang as if her life depended on it. Thrilling, all of it.
• Repeated 20 September. Box office: 020-7638 8891.
