Oxford Bach Choir: Verdi Requiem

Tickets £15-£45; half-price u-18, £5 discount for full time students

Programme:

Verdi, Requiem. This concert marks the 150th anniversary of the first performance.

Verdi was through and through an opera composer, and his setting of the Requiem could hardly be more theatrical – indeed it has sometimes been described as ‘opera without the costumes’, albeit with a considerably larger part for the chorus than in most operas. There can surely be no more vivid – even terrifying – evocation of the Day of Judgement than Verdi’s setting of the Dies Irae; but there is joy and ecstasy here too, with angelic choirs praising God, gloriously fervent writing for the four soloists, thrilling moments of pianissimo, and enormous climaxes.