Verdi Requiem, 2025

Slough Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus 
with Wycombe Philharmonic Choir
1730, Sunday 11 May 2025
Braywick Leisure Centre, Maidenhead

Leon Gee, conductor
Olivia Tringham, soprano
Lydia Shariff, alto
Dominic Lee, tenor
Hector Blogs, bass

Verdi March from Aida 
Verdi Requiem 

Verdi’s Soul-stirring Expressions of Triumph, Judgement and Redemption
As a service for the dead, Requiem music is typically serene. but Verdi’s is in a genre of its own and no soul will depart quietly into the night to what has been described as the greatest opera he never wrote.  Verdi was moved to write his Requiem by the death of a friend.  His grief, understanding of the human heart and theatrical instincts resulted in a thrilling and dramatic high-octane work, full of sublime melodies, pleas for redemption and soft prayers for eternal rest.  Listen for the famous dies Irae playing out the day of judgement on a grand and powerful scale; trumpets blast as a chorus of voices cry out in terror.  The Requiem became an overnight sensation, and was equally ecstatically received at the many European performances that soon followed its premiere. 
There are more emotional contrasts to come, in the Grand March from Verdi’s tragic opera Aida which tells the story of an Ethiopian princess enslaved in ancient Egypt. The March is played as her lover - the Egyptian General Ramades - leads his army home after victory over Ethiopia.  Though rousing and celebratory it is also a scene of immense emotional and personal conflict for Princess Aida whose country has been conquered.