Review by James Day for the August 2006 edition of Pride Magazine. Used with permission.

Tears at performance of War Requiem

Cambridge Philharmonic Society
Britten's War Requiem
Ely Cathedral

As the large audience was dispersing in Ely Cathedral after the Cambridge Philharmonic Society's highly moving performance of Britten's War Requiem, which many of us regard as the finest large-scale choral work of the second half of the 20th Century, a friend who has sung in it many times but had never before heard it "live" as a member of an audience confessed to me that tears had been streaming down his face, it had moved him so deeply.

I am not surprised. Tim Redmond and his forces, which included a well- trained contingent from Sawston Village College (congratulations to all concerned!), really got to the heart of the work. I found myself wondering whether some politicians and others who are so keen on blowing up their enemies without regard to the nature of the people who are being killed might do well to be compelled to listen to Britten's stark, powerful and often chilling masterpiece until they learn to exercise some sense and human decency.

I have heard a number of find performances of the War Requiem, but in many respects this came closest in its impact on me personally to the very first time I heard it over 40 years ago in King's College Chapel, with the composer conducting the professional Melos Ensemble and Sir David Willcocks in charge of the large CUMS choir and orchestra.

This is not to say that the Phil's performance was flawless. From where I was sitting, the balance between choir and orchestra tended sometimes to favour the players at the expense of the singers. There were moments, too, when I felt that the internal balance of the large choir was not good: the men were sometimes tentative where the ladies were secure and full of tone. Yet in the long run, this did not matter. Where this performance really rang the bell, if I may put it so cornily, was in the quiet and pathos- laden passages, especially the unaccompanied closes to the first, third and final movements. Mr Redmond and the Philharmonic's choir are to be congratulated on their achievement of a really hushed, telling pianissimo as well as a blazing fortissimo when needed - the dynamic range was for the most part superb.

The chamber orchestra, too, was the best in my recollection since Britten's highly polished professional group, while the big orchestra played with immense commitment and remarkable intensity of sound.

Best of all was the integration between chamber and "massed" forces. For this, much of the credit falls to Mr Redmond and his associate conductors, Gerry Cornelius and Janet Macleod. Nor should we forget the excellent soloists: tenor Mark Wilde and baritone Neal Davies, who conveyed a wide range of emotion without ever indulging in any cheap sentimental tricks, and Maureen Brathwaite, admiration for whose versatility and technical power increases every time I hear her.

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