Photo, BBC/Chris Christodoulou
REVIEWED FROM LIVE RELAY ON BBC RADIO 3
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Royal Albert Hall, London
When the Day of Judgement arrives, its soundtrack is catered for, the ‘Dies irae’ from Berlioz’s Requiem (1837), with four brass bands positioned at the regular compass points (forty players in total plus orchestral brass) and a phalanx of timpani and lightning-strike cymbal clashes. Spectacular of course – and it certainly was on this occasion, returning at the end of the sixth-movement ‘Lacrimosa’ – although while it is reported that four-hundred-and-fifty performers took part in the premiere given in the space of Cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides (Paris), making the Albert Hall a suitable equivalent, much of Berlioz’s setting is contemplative if far-reaching and deeply personal, musically singular. Antonio Pappano made total connection with the expression and dynamics of Berlioz’s score, choruses and LSO finely honed without compromising the music’s directness or occasional quirkiness (such as the trombones in the ‘Hostias’). Tenor Julien Henric sung from on-high in the ‘Sanctus’ with admirable purity, and this eighty-minute performance ended with a becoming-radiant ‘Agnus dei’.
I should have switched R3 off before Sara Mohr-Pietsch launched a verbal assault that required no breathing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m003026v