‘An absolute epic work’: Spokane Symphony’s Masterworks 8 faces 90 minutes of nonstop music with Verdi’s “Requiem”
The reputation of some distinct pieces of music precedes them. The kind that sends shivers down spines and evokes goosebumps, no matter how many centuries seem to pass . Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” is one of those pieces.
“It’s an absolute epic work,” said James Lowe, conductor and music director of the Spokane Symphony. “It’s one of the single greatest choral works in literature.”
Although initially planned to be a collaborative project, Verdi wrote the entire piece himself after the death of renowned Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni. Although Verdi’s version follows that of a Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, like any other requiem, there are variations in theme and inspiration that make it stand out.
“This feels like a piece that’s so much more about mortality,” Lowe said. “This is someone looking at their own life and kind of pleading for their salvation and being terrified by what’s to come.”
Take Mozart’s famed “Requiem in D Minor” for example. The legendary composer was inspired by his dedication to God and the Catholic Church; meanwhile, Verdi was much less confident in religion, the church and the sheer ambivalence of existence itself.
“This comes from a different place than, say, the Mozart Requiem,” Lowe said. “This music comes from a very human and humane place. He’s not so much looking at the idea of heaven so much as the idea of what it means to be mortal.”
The drama and haunting grandiosity of death is captured, in part, due to the piece’s large focus on the choir and vocal soloists. When the Spokane Symphony performs Verdi’s “Requiem” on Saturday and Sunday, they will be joined by the Spokane Symphony Chorale, consisting of volunteers.
“I love every time I get to work with the chorale,” Lowe said. “Dr. Meg Stohlmann, our chorale director, is absolutely superb and spends a lot of time really whipping them into shape. So, by the time I come along, all the hard work has been done, and I can just add on little sprinkles atop all the work she’s already put in.”
The monumental piece is roughly 90 straight minutes of performance – no intermission, no break, just an hour and a half of attempting to interpret what is known as one of the most intense pieces of music to be born from the Romantic era. Although one might think the bold, brash moments would be the most difficult, Lowe is inclined to believe the quiet, slow sections are much more tiring.
“What frightens me more as the conductor is there’s so much music that is incredibly quiet,” Lowe said. “He writes very, very soft dynamics. And just when you think it’s the softest it can go, he asks you to go even softer … It’s more draining to sustain something very, very quietly.”
Throughout the work, a vast range of human emotions are explored by Verdi. From somber mourning and grief to absolutely intense, even horrifying moments of terror and confused rage, the audience is taken on a true orchestral rollercoaster from beginning to end.
“It ends very, very quietly,” Lowe said. “Having had this huge orchestra, huge choral and four soloists working for 90 minutes, it ends with this very gentle, quiet, C major chord that somehow doesn’t feel resolved. It doesn’t feel settled at the end.
“It feels like it ends slightly on a question mark.”
The true experience of Verdi’s “Requiem,” from deafening quiet to sheer walls of sound, will be captured within the long concert hall of the Fox Theater – designed to let sound ring.
“What I would hope is people come and experience this incredible work live, which is very different from hearing it on a recording,” Lowe said. “It gives a moment to reflect themselves, and to think and to feel what Verdi himself felt.”