Some forty years after Verdi's Requiem had received its first performance in the central belt, here it was reaching Dundee. It was Charles Cowe's first season in charge of the choir and he was clearly out to make an impact - on the members of the Choral Union as well as on the audience in the huge Caird Hall, completed a decade earlier.
Olga Haley was a new name at this stage, but by the end of the decade she was a leading mezzo with the Carl Rosa Opera, taking meaty parts such as Carmen and Azucena, The male soloists were also of particularly high quality. Heddle Nash and Harold Williams were sufficiently notable to be included in the team of 16 soloists who would launch the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music for Sir Henry Wood in 1938.
At this time it was still considered that the Requiem did not constitute a complete evening's entertainment. However it was presumably a big enough challenge for the choir to handle. The Scottish Orchestra was therefore put through its paces by Mr Cowe in a performance of Mozart's Symphony no 40 in G minor, K550.
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