Verdi Requiem

More than 200 singers filled the tiered risers behind the orchestra; the Usher Hall seemed full to the brim before a note had been played. A slow, spare phrase from the muted cellos opened the work, taken up by the violins, soft and coaxing as the chorus entered almost imperceptibly. Conductor Patrick Hahn was equally attentive to the silences between sections, which held their own quiet pressure.

The Dies irae shattered that restraint. Explosive timpani and the massed voices of the chorus sent sound through the hall, enveloping it, almost pressurising it. The chorus was the engine of the eruption, driving its repeated declarations with unwavering assurance; when the orchestra fell back, the singers carried the music alone. Around them, the strings surged in sprawling, overlapping lines, winding up and down in perfect discord. The first violins, with Maya Iwabuchi among them, gave this restless texture its almost hypnotic edge. In the Tuba mirum, offstage trumpet calls sounded beyond the platform, encircling the audience further into the music with an almost hypnotic, fiery warmth. The refrain's power lies as much in its returns as its force and terror refuse to recede.

Against these massed forces, the four soloists (Jennifer Davis, Irene Roberts, Mario Lerchenberger and Edwin Crossley-Mercer) brought the work's more intimate voice into focus. Lerchenberger was particularly pronounced in the Ingemisco with his tenor having a raw, ringing power, assured and unwavering, easily cutting through the orchestral weight. The quartet brought a warmer, more lyrical, almost buoyant quality to the Offertorio. And later, in the Agnus Dei, Davis and Roberts began with an unaccompanied duet, moving together before the chorus took up the melody. This change of scale was quietly affecting.

As Hahn lowered us into the final Libera me. The Dies irae returned, before the final fugue drew the work back towards its closing, hushed plea. Paul Whittaker's British Sign Language interpretation accompanied the entire performance, conveying not just the words but the drama and emotion of the music and was rightly applauded. The evening was a triumph for Patrick Hahn and the combined forces of the RSNO, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the four soloists.

Verdi Requiem by Royal Scottish National Orchestra, RSNO Chorus, Edinburgh Festival Chorus.