The final weekend of the Festival saw a three-day residency by the Philharmonia Orchestra - regular visitors up from London. It began on Friday with a recent work, Fire in my Mouth by Julia Wolfe, conducted by Marin Alsop. Sunday afternoon saw a short 'family friendly' concert of animal-related works that included Festival director Nicola Benedetti joining the orchestra in a performance of The Lark Ascending.
Saturday evening had a performance of Verdi's Requiem, a work the orchestra played at the 1969 Festival under Giulini. They had previously made a memorable recording under the same conductor, back in 1963. The Festival's closing event, a concert performance of Richard Strauss's final opera Capriccio, also gave us a reminder of the orchestra's great history, as an important recording was made in 1957.
The conductor this time was the orchestra's Music Director, Santtu-Matias Rouvali. To him must go the first praise for what was undoubtedly one of the most memorable of the many performances this great work has received here over the years. The sense of drama and attack that he drew from orchestra and chorus was quite exceptional.
The quartet of soloists was also memorable. The bass sang throughout with a lovely rounded warmth of tone, while the tenor sang with great sweetness and subtlety, while still able to unleash the clarion notes occasionally required. Jennifer Johnston's international career has developed apace since she appeared in Scotland early in her career, and she now produces a full-toned sound reminiscent of some of the great Italian mezzos of recent decades, and she blended her sound beautifully in her duets with the soprano. Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha appeared here last year in Tippett's early choral masterpiece A Child of Our Time. The Verdi is a rather different idiom, but she sang throughout with a lustrous velvety tone which was perfect for the part.
In all, this was one of the best accounts of the Requiem heard at the Festival over the years - and our memories go back to evenings conducted by Giulini and Abbado, as well as Conlon, Rizzi, Noseda, Runnicles and others.
A footnote concerns the orchestra's warm-up session before the Verdi. Emerging from the general orchestral hubbub could clearly be heard the principal horn playing the glorious moonlight solo from the Strauss. Did he have the wrong music on his stand? Fortunately not, but he did play it beautifully the following evening.
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