A major presentation by the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall this New Year was Giuseppe Verdi’s towering “Messa da Requiem,” for three performances, under the commanding baton of Music Director Alan Gilbert, featuring the New York Choral Artists, directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and a forceful, resounding, and gripping “Requiem” it was that Gilbert shaped. Of the announced quartet of soloists, one was felled by illness for the full run and, by the time I heard the work, on the final night, January 17, a second was replaced as well. The striking slate of singers, all Metropolitan Opera artists on that last night, was made up of soprano Angela Meade; mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona, from Trieste, Italy, deputizing on short notice for Finland’s Lilli Paasikivi; tenor Russell Thomas, so admired in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s “Requiem” last April, replacing Brandon Jovanovich; and bass-baritone Eric Owens.
The Choral Artists’ mellifluous singing of the opening “Requiem aeternam” and the soloists’ clean and dramatic statement of the “Kyrie” prepared the listener from the start for a fully transcendent experience.
Gilbert’s orchestra and Flummerfelt’s chorus’ chilling announcement of the dreaded Day of Judgment, the “Dies irae,” was fittingly ferocious. Trumpets on both sides of the second ring, responding to trumpets on stage, surrounding the audience with sound, introduced the choral “Tuba mirum,” heralding the resurrection of the dead, with Owens’ ominous “Mors stupebit” further describing that day of wrath. Singing in dusky, velvety tone, Barcellona offered a detailed, bel canto “Liber scriptus,” with the chorus, and gave every florid turn its due, and did so in the ensuing “Quid sum miser,” with Meade and Thomas, as well. The quartet and then the choral ensemble delivered a haunting “salva me, fons pietatis” in the “Rex tremendae” section. Meade and Barcellona harmonized perfectly in the pulsating “Recordare,” as they did later, an appropriate contrast of light—the soprano—and dark—the mezzo—in the “Agnus Dei,” with its eerie a cappella beginning. Thomas sang “Ingemisco,” his big solo, with commitment, in ringing tone, reducing his substantial sound to an apt thread of voice for a hushed “Inter oves” before building to a final flourish. He followed this up with a silken “Hostias” later, in the “Offertorio.” Owens’ sturdy and sonorous “Confutatis maledictis” continued with a prayerful “Oro supplex et acclinis.” Barcellona, and soon Owens, commenced the mournful “Lacrymosa” with suitably funereal solemnity and Meade floated her contribution in the “Pie Jesu Domine” verse.
Barcellona, Thomas, and then Owens’ “Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,” to open the “Offertorio,” made for a fine blending of voices, with Meade coming in ethereally, or one might say angelically, for her “Sed signifer sanctus Michael,” concerning the archangel. The Choral Artists proffered a rousing “Sanctus” fugue, nimbly paced by Maestro Gilbert. After “Agnus Dei,” with Meade, Barcellona, her mezzo glowing, followed up the duet with a hopeful “Lux aeterna” and brought the“Requiem aeternam,” with Thomas and Owens, to a searing conclusion.
The climactic “Libera me” found Meade, as expected, in her glory, her plea for deliverance eloquent and her “Tremens factus” filled with foreboding. Meade and the Choral Artists’ “Requiem aeternam,” in this final section, gave a sense of peace granted at last, after the inexorable damnation of the last threatening invocation of the “Dies irae.” She capped her concluding “Requiem,” calling for eternal rest, with an incandescent high B-flat, before the choral “Libera me, Domine” fugue, and continued as a force to reckon with in the concluding verses of this formidable Mass.