BBC Concert Orchestra: Verdi's Requiem

The Requiem of 1874 is the only large-scale work that Verdi didn’t compose for the stage but this dramatic choral classic wouldn’t sound out of place at La Scala; indeed, the conductor Hans von Bülow memorably described it as ‘Verdi’s latest opera, in church vestments.’ Whatever its credentials as a devotional work, there’s no denying its sheer emotional power which deals in extremes of scale, from the outright terror of the Dies Irae – all doom-...