The Universities for Nottingham Concert: Verdi’s Requiem, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 25 March 2026, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review: William Ruff
Photo credit: William Ruff
The Universities for Nottingham Concert: Verdi’s Requiem
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham | 25 March 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review: William Ruff
“Thrilling music-making from every member of the huge forces involved.”
Choirs from Nottingham’s two universities came together with conductor Anna-Maria Helsing, the BBC Concert Orchestra and a team of top soloists to thrill a packed Royal Concert Hall with one of the greatest of all choral works: Verdi’s Requiem. And if you ever need proof of the vital importance of classical music in the lives of young people, this was it. I can’t imagine anyone involved ever forgetting the experience.
Verdi wrote his Requiem in honour of Alessandro Manzoni, the great Italian writer and patriot, a man whom Verdi had admired throughout his life. It premiered exactly one year after Manzoni’s death at the Church of San Marco in Milan. It was such a huge success that Verdi had to stage an encore performance – but this time at La Scala, Milan’s famous opera house.
Critics tried to dismiss it as just another Verdi opera, but one dressed up in ecclesiastical robes. But that’s exactly why it is so popular. The best performances of Verdi’s Requiem never forget its theatrical nature – and on Wednesday in Nottingham we undoubtedly heard one of those performances, one that was thrilling from beginning to end.
You knew from the opening few bars that this was going to be good. The choirs came together like a procession of mourners, as if in a dark cloister in one of Verdi’s more sombre operas. Their grief was tangible, their sorrowful sighs deeply moving. Anna-Maria Helsing’s pacing was as dramatic here as it was throughout the Requiem, finely judging just how quickly to allow the movement to blossom, especially when the music opens heavenward as the soloists enter one by one. Together the performers created the sort of musical drama whose grandeur reached out to grip the audience and refused to let them go for the next 90 minutes. Choral singing throughout was well-balanced, attentive to fine detail and highly responsive to often extreme contrasts of mood.
Verdi’s vision in this work is dominated by the idea of the Last Judgement, when human beings are gathered to be put on trial and either rewarded with Heaven or punished with Hell. Verdi was an agnostic, at odds with the Catholic church, but this didn’t stop him relishing the musical potential of this ultimate dramatic spectacle. The Dies Irae has become the Requiem’s most famous section – and Verdi ensures that we never forget it. In the sonically ideal space of the Royal Concert Hall, it exploded with force and rage, the double fortissimo thunderbolts of the bass drum adding to an experience which should, of course, be terrifying but is instead irresistibly exciting.
And then the air was thick with trumpets answering each other across the universe. With consummate control Anna-Maria Helsing managed each dramatic transition, nowhere more so than when the solo bass, with bass drum accompaniment, told us how Death and Nature shall stand amazed when the great Judge appears.
The soloists were all impressive, with powerful, operatic voices, all of them widely experienced vocal actors. Just a few examples: mezzo Jennifer Johnston was passionately, dramatically lyrical in the Liber Scriptus; soprano Francesca Chiejina struck a note of terrible, electrifying urgency at the beginning of the Libera Me; tenor Brenden Patrick Gunnell was vividly convincing as he groaned with guilt in the Ingemisco; Matthew Rose used his huge voice and stature to terrifying effect in the Confutatis, that alarming vision of the damned consigned to sulphurous flames.
The partnership between the city’s two universities and the BBC Concert Orchestra has been exceptionally rewarding, but perhaps this Requiem is the jewel in the crown. Their playing in all sections was razor-sharp, especially the brass and percussion which underpins so much of the Requiem’s terror. The choirs had clearly been expertly rehearsed, with much attention to fine detail. Under Anna-Maria Helsing’s dynamic and insightful direction this performance brought many in the audience cheering to their feet. Everyone involved should feel proud of their achievement.
The Universities for Nottingham Concert: Verdi’s Requiem
University of Nottingham Choir
Nottingham Trent University Choir
BBC Concert Orchestra
Anna-Maria Helsing, conductor
Francesca Chiejina, soprano
Jennifer Johnston, mezzo
Brenden Patrick Gunnell, tenor
Matthew Rose, bass