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Berlioz's Requiem

post #1 of 10
4/26/11 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
I am in awe. The timpani during Dies Irae make your head spin.

A local choir is doing the full Requiem soon with over 200 musicians. But the full number suggested by Berlioz is simply unreal:
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80 sopranos and altos, 60 tenors, 70 basses, but then says 400 singers would be better. THEN he says, actually 800 singers would be okay, but all 800 should only sing the loud parts, and "only" 400 on the quiet parts.

And to go with the 80-60-70, he asks for 25 first violins, 25 second violins, 20 violas, 20 cellos, and 18 double basses. And - are you ready? - 4 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 English horns, 4 clarinets, TWELVE horns, EIGHT bassoons, SIXTEEN trumpets, SIXTEEN trombones, SIX tubas, SIXTEEN timpani (kettle drums, played by ten players), bass drum, tenor drum, FOUR tam-tams (large gongs - ridiculous!), and TEN pairs of cymbals.
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post #2 of 10
4/26/11 at 1:45pm
Classical concept albums ftw; March to the Scaffold is an unforgettable piece. You wonder if he was the one in the opium trance
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post #3 of 10
4/26/11 at 5:53pm
Great piece, gimmicky, like a B movie, but lots of fun.
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post #4 of 10
4/27/11 at 12:00am
No link?



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post #5 of 10
4/27/11 at 1:26am
Are they doing the antiphonal setup? When the LA Phil did the Berlioz Requiem, they had the full percussion ensemble recommended by Berlioz as well as 4 brass bands set up all around the hall so the sound came from you from all over the place. It was ridiculous in a great way.

That was the 2003-2004 season, the 200th anniversary of his birth, and they had a whole slate of Berlioz pieces, including a super-trippy collaboration with Complicite, an English performance theater group, in Symphonie Fantastique that sounded cheesy on paper, but worked well.

--Andre
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post #6 of 10
4/27/11 at 10:38am
Sounds vaguely the same number as Mahler's 8th symphony. However, I still don't get Mahler so I speak mostly from a shallow vague quasi-understanding gleaned mostly from reading slipcovers.
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post #7 of 10
4/27/11 at 1:24pm
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Originally Posted by Manton View Post
Great piece, gimmicky, like a B movie, but lots of fun.

+1
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post #8 of 10
4/27/11 at 6:18pm
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Originally Posted by Thomas View Post
Sounds vaguely the same number as Mahler's 8th symphony. However, I still don't get Mahler so I speak mostly from a shallow vague quasi-understanding gleaned mostly from reading slipcovers.

Try #5, that's the gateway drug. Last moevement esp.
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post #9 of 10
4/27/11 at 7:16pm
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Originally Posted by Manton View Post
Try #5, that's the gateway drug. Last moevement esp.

That's the one that opens with a march? Love the opening, but I get lost quickly. I'll give it another spin and start at the end, this time.
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post #10 of 10
4/28/11 at 2:33pm
5 opens with a funeral theme on a lone trumpet which turns into a funeral march, but Mahler loved marches. Lots of his pieces, if they don't begin with a march, have a march somewhere in them. 6 also begins with a march, but with a martial theme.

Gateway into Mahler can start anywhere, but 4 and 1 tend to be the popular ones. One way to think of Mahler is as a 3D emo movie except it's all distilled into the soundtrack.

--Andre
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