The best Verdi?

PalmaThe question in the headline has no answer, but Verdi's biographer, Julian Budden, stated that it was in the Requiem that he showed the greatest concentration of his genius. Among so many requiems that inhabit the universe of music, it is not very difficult to think, with many elements of judgment, that this one we are discussing is the most complex, monumental, and anthological of all of them. It was not a genre that Giuseppe Verdi had cultivated much. It was his participation, with a Libera me Domine, which, along with twelve other composers, they dedicated to Gioachino Rossini, the "swan of Pesaro." A piece that was not even premiered when its first performance was planned, the commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of the person to whom it was dedicated. Verdi rescued it when he decided to dedicate his to Alessandro Manzoni. Thus began the history of this colossal musical skyscraper, which we enjoyed as the sixth concert of the season by the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra, along with the UIB choir, conducted by Núria Cunillera, Mira Alkhovix, soprano; Sílvia Tro Santafé, mezzosoprano; Antoni Lliteres, tenor, and Simón Orfila, bass. Pablo Mielgo conducted the event.

An event and a realization of where the orchestra stands and how far it can go, due to the difficulty involved in a composition with such immense as well as wonderful reefs. It began with a subtle Requiem Aeternam, where the choir sings an et lux perpetuam, which gains body. A first exhibition of the composer's group mastery, which the University Choir, as it was called before, did not miss, on the contrary, it once again confirmed its polyphonic virtues, which have been the hallmark of the ensemble for almost fifty years. Only two punctual moments, as in the Tuba Mirum, spectacular, where they competed with the orchestra, which neither gave respite nor missed moments of extreme affectation and perfect complement of the singer in turn. A good example, among many others, is the Confutatis, which Simón Orfila performed with as much forcefulness as richness of nuance. Silvia Tro also left her mark right from the colorful Liber scriptus. A luxury that, as in Orfila's case, was not surprising at all, as demonstrated and proved in each of her performances. Antoni Lliteres chose the option of volume and very correctly resolved his role, with an Ingemisco that is never easy. I had no prior knowledge of the soprano Mira Alkhovix. She arrived with ample faculties and excellences in the last three movements of the composition, from the Libera me-Dies Irae to the end. A major tour de force to round off an error-free evening. I am left with a question: When will Beethoven's Missa Solemnis arrive?