Image: Mozart Requiem: 100 Voices; Photograph courtesy Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
There is no doubting the beauty and power of orchestral music but there will never be a substitute for the purity of a human voice, or in the case of Mozart Requiem: 100 Voices, some 130 voices. Anyone who has not heard Handel’s Messiah performed by a full choir, has not heard it properly. The rendition by the expanded Australian Brandenburg Choir would be enough make even the most strident atheist drop to their knees and beg forgiveness from whatever deity their faith had been at least temporarily restored in. It was quite simply sublime—the kind of musical experience that sends shivers up your spine and leaves you in slack-jawed disbelief.
It’s no small task, bringing together a 130 strong choir ranging in age from 7 upwards but Paul Dyer has proved once again why he is possessed of a singular vitality, passion and audacity in pulling it seamlessly together. There is an unmatched purity to the voices of the Brandenburg Youth Choir, which has been preserved despite being polished into a finely tuned instrument. From one of the young singers breaking decorum to wave at a loved one spotted in the audience to legs swinging freely unable to touch the ground, there was an innocent charm that infused an otherwise pristine performance.
The heights of the first half of the performance were never quite crested in the second but that is a reflection on the rare quality of the former rather than a paucity in the latter. The sheer emotive power of so many musicians and voices was something that was unlikely to be surpassed.
Mozart’s Requiem is a challenging piece of music to say the least, for both players and audience. Its abrupt changes in mood from the foreboding and melancholy of its first movement, all the way through the hope, fire and brimstone and the famous Lacrimosa in the third and the despairing faith of its finale. The ABO managed a certain playfulness present in so much of Mozart’s music, once described as yellow by Neil Harbisson, and despite its subject matter it isn’t a monotonous and dreary chest beating about the pain and pointlessness of life.
If anything this performance captured what is best in the Requiem and that is an affirmation of the preciousness of life. The two-hour run time slipped past almost unnoticed and with the final notes fading to rousing applause, one felt woken abruptly from a wistful reverie. Mozart Requiem shows resoundingly how much life remains in this music, even if its theme is death and the effect that passion and innovation can have in keeping cornerstone classical pieces, fresh, vibrant and relevant. The ABO confirms its place as one of Australia’s premier musical outfits in this sublime performance.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Mozart Requiem: 100 Voices
Brandenburg Choir and Brandenburg Young Voices
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Artistic Director and Conductor Paul Dyer​
Melbourne Recital Centre
7–8 May
