Trinity College Chapel
4 stars

Herbert Howells' Requiem is one of the most personally intense pieces of all choral music. Its composition was interrupted and invigorated by the death of Howells’ son, Michael, at the age of nine in 1935, and whilst the orchestral Hymnus Paradisi was the public face of Howells’ grief, the Requiem seems to frame his most contemplative and personal thoughts.

The trebles who sang the Requiem would have been the same age as Michael, and this stimulated Howells in the creation of some deeply poignant lines. Although this aspect can be overplayed, it certainly was a challenge Trinity faced when they took on this work with female sopranos.

Any extraneous considerations melted into oblivion with the opening bars of the piece: Stephen Layton’s distinctive conducting style gave the piece a suppleness that allowed the choir to revel in the conjunction of music and text. The solos were expressively, if a little unimaginatively, sung; and disappointingly the choir was on a few occasions not entirely metrically together. Yet each member seemed to be in union in their sense of direction and phrasing in each line.

The highlight of the performance was the second Requiem Aeternam, with a delicious texture immediately established out of which various lines rose gracefully to voice the poignant words which Howells must have felt so fervently for his son: “Requiem aeternam dona eis, et lux perpetua luceat eis”. (“Give them eternal peace, and may perpetual light shine on them.”) Trinity made this work feel personal to everyone in the audience, and for this they deserve the greatest respect.

Toby Chadd