Sunday, October 6

Tag: Santa-Matias Rouvali

Verdi’s Requiem – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Scotland

Verdi’s Requiem – Usher Hall, Edinburgh

The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by the youthful and energetic Santa-Matias Rouvali, accompanied by the massed ranks of the brilliant Edinburgh Festival Chorus, lit up the Usher Hall tonight with a powerful rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem. The argument continues whether this is more of an an opera than an ecclesiastical work, but one thing all can agree on is that it is packed full of drama. The trumpet shall sound, through the places of the dead, and across the land The multiple drum-heralded Dies Irae (one of Verdi’s most recognisable ‘Bangers’) never fails to send a shiver down my spine, and it was a joy to hear it rebounding around the great space that is the Usher Hall, surely the finest classical music venue in Edinburgh. You will rarely see the string section...