The Royal Festival Hall is beginning to feel like a home from home for me. Quite literally in one sense – because I grew up in a house where many furnishings had been purchased around the time of the Festival of Britain, that spindly style (lovingly preserved in the RFH interior) is hard-wired into me at a deep level as the way things ought to look.
We were back to perform Berlioz’ Grande Messe des Morts, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, as the opening concert of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s season. The headline choir was the Gloucester Choral Society, together with the Philharmonia Voices (who also provided a semi-chorus for the Quaerens me), with members of Bristol Choral Society.
The previous time I performed this was with a (good) amateur orchestra, but you hear so much more with a top-notch professional one. For example, the Offertory makes much more sense.
With one possible exception this must be the highest-profile occasion I’ve ever performed in. It was widely reviewed: