Cambridge Philharmonic Society
Brahms’ German Requiem
West Road Concert Hall
Sunday 25 March 2007

It was a bold move by conductor Tim Redmond and the Cambridge Philharmonic Society to couple the familiar Brahms German Requiem, not with some juicy orchestral or choral lollipop, but with a substantial piece by a living British composer, at their concert in the West Road concert hall on 25 March. It was also a welcome innovation to allow the audience and performers to meet the composer, Paul Patterson, at a well-attended pre-concert talk beforehand.

Mr Patterson, who celebrated his sixtieth birthday this year, is a thoroughly approachable man; and his music is equally approachable without being old hat, archaic, or lacking in character. His setting of the Stabat Mater dates from 1986; it was composed for the Huddersfield Choral Society − a choir of no mean quality and technical skill − and proved to be a deeply moving and powerful setting of the sombre text. This was more than a concert: it was an Occasion.

The sense of occasion was heightened when we discovered that the mezzo-soprano who had been engaged for the prominent solo part (presumably representing the Virgin Mary as the Mater Dolorosa of the text) was indisposed and had to be replaced at the very last minute by a counter-tenor who had to learn the work from scratch in an unbelievably short time.

The counter-tenor in question was Andrew Watts, who has built up an enviable reputation in concert hall and opera-house alike. He rose to the occasion magnificently: one would have thought the work had been written expressly for him. Mr Patterson skilfully deploys the soloist first as a kind of deeply-involved commentator on the tragic spectacle of the Crucifixion and then as the central figure, apart from the Crucified One Himself, in that spectacle. The differing aspects of Jacoponi da Todi’s powerful text are projected with genuinely dramatic, not just rhetorical or theatrical, effect by being dividing the poem into eight movements, vividly contrasted in tempo and texture but unified by a number of telling thematic cross-references (including a deliberate allusion to Wagner’s Parsifal). The fifth movement in particular, ‘Vidit suum dulcem Natum’, where the soloist is really drawn into the action, as it were, created a tremendous impact, while the sheer animation and momentum of the strikingly-scored second and sixth and the aching serenity of the finale were also both thrilling and uplifting. Mr Redmond and the Phil performed the work with confidence, beautifully shaded choral tone, great power and orchestral playing that was both expressive and exhilarating. I should like to hear this fine work again.

The Brahms German Requiem found them in equally good form, despite the chorus’ having to stand throughout both it and the Stabat Mater. Mr Redmond never allowed the first three movements to collapse into inertia in the interests of solemnity, as some conductors tend to do; and soloists Andrew Davies − declaiming Luther’s magnificent text, for all his lack of years, like a stern Old Testament prophet − and Meeta Raval, with her rich, radiant sound − contributed memorably. And oh boy, was the heaven-storming vision of the Last Judgment in the penultimate movement breathtaking!

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