With every passing season, it becomes ever more obvious what a treasure Memphis has in the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. Intimate feeling yet spacious sounding, it is an “honest” hall whose clarity forces the performers on its stage to do their very best.
Certain works cry out to be performed in a great space like ours, none more so than Berlioz’s spectacular Requiem. Unlike more intimate settings of the Requiem Mass like Mozart’s and Fauré’s, Berlioz’s version assails the heavens with a large chorus, brass choirs and multiple timpani. Like the composer himself, it is a work of wild extremes, tender one moment, blood curdling the next.
Berlioz’s Requiem holds special personal significance for me, because singing it in a performance conducted by Robert Shaw compelled me pursue music professionally. While I don’t expect it will create that same imperative for any of you on Saturday night, I hope you’ll be as swept away as I was by Berlioz’s unique and overwhelming personality.
Also listen to Memphis Symphony Radio Hour on Friday afternoons between 3 pm and 4 pm on WKNO Memphis 91.1 FM or WKNP-Jackson, TN hosted by Maestro David Loebel.
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