Andrew Lloyd Webber remains best known for composing such hit musicals as Evita and Phantom of the Opera. But he also set to music the Latin liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, following in the footsteps of Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi.
Requiem, which the Winston-Salem Symphony presented yesterday at the Stevens Center, includes parts for chorus, sung yesterday by the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorale and the Cantata Singers at UNC School of the Arts. The three solo vocalists were soprano Natalie Fagnan, tenor Michael Ryan and boy soprano Zachary Covington. Robert Moody conducted. The rest of the program featured Russell Peck's Peace Overture and Brahms' Schicksalslied.
Requiem was composed between 1982 and 1985, when it had its first performance in New York. It's an odd creation: No violins are used, but several keyboard instruments are, including a celeste and an organ. The composer visits one stylistic world after another but never settles in one for long. If one movement reminds you of Verdi or Orff, another might dabble in rock, gospel or Broadway. The writing for the solo vocalists is no picnic. Fagnan, for example, contended (admirably) with a dauntingly wide range. Ryan sang with assurance, warmth and expression.
Is Lloyd Webber's Requiem a great piece? No. Does it have enough good moments to make it worth hearing? Yes. I loved the "Hosannah" movement, described as the "only intrusion of Broadway in the score." The choristers swayed from side to side in rhythm to the music, making something like joyous popular Gospel music emerge.
Covington put in some of his best singing in the finale, imploring God to grant us eternal rest in soft, hypnotic fashion. But this calm was destroyed by a chaotic explosion of timpani and organ, which Moody said recalled the piece's links to the Northern Ireland conflicts.
Peace Overture packs a lot of interesting, rhythmically charged and complex material into a relatively few bars. The music is sometimes quite American in content and feel. But often it is not. I admired a striving for invention and unpredictability -- as when, for example, a gigantic and rowdy climax quickly gave way to something quiet and beautiful.
In performing Peace Overture, the symphony paid tribute to Peck, a prolific, internationally recognized composer from Greensboro who died last year. Peck's wife, Cameron, was in the audience, and Moody recognized her after the performance.
kkeuffel@wsjournal.com
727-7337
Yesterday's program by the Winston-Salem Symphony will be repeated at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Stevens Center. Call 721-1945 for tickets.
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