“A Requiem to die for”
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
The Sydney Morning Herald
David Vance
August 2001

Sublime music and a Requiem performance to die for

“Less is more”, a phrase coined by Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe, seemed an apt description for the style Stephen Layton brought to his direction of the ACO and the ACO Voices. Like van der Rohe, Layton's concerns were also with architecture, a musical one in which each detail was carefully wrought as part of a larger construction of eminently satisfying proportions. Where some conductors might revel in the theatrical display of the grandiose gesture, Layton appears to recognise that economy is a virtue. There is nothing superfluous in his direction. Instead it is one in which the smallest movement of the wrist or finger can generate a powerful musical response

In Bach's Magnificat in D major, the brilliance of the opening chorus, with its trio of high trumpets, and fanfaring vocal writing, was delivered with luminous clarity. Just as Bach is at his most exultant, Mozart achieves one of his most sublime works in the Requiem. The composer's death inconveniently intervened before he could finish the commissioned work, so in order not to lose the generous fee, his wife persuaded one of his students, Sussmeyer, to fill in the dots. While it is that version of the work that is most frequently heard, a number of musical archaeologists have dug deeply into the sources and attempted their own completions. Sunday's performance adopted a recent version by American pianist and musicologist Robert Levin, which strips away spurious accretions. A more exciting account would be difficult to find. Here was a Requiem possibly to die for, and one that probed the complexities of death and mortality. Layton's taut direction throughout found the perfect blend of grief and terror, of suffering and consolation. Such perfection depended in no small measure on the intelligent artistry of the vocal soloists and their colleagues in the ACO Voices, supported by the thorough musicianship of the ACO.

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