Grand Gestures

There was nothing straightforward about the recent performance of Verdi’s Requiem given by Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic. Whether one takes that as criticism or praise will depend largely on one’s ideas of how the work should be played. Anyone who came looking for refinement and surface gloss, even-keel tempi, restrained dynamics, and the kind of well-rounded, meticulously-balanced performance of which both orchestra and conductor are capable may well have come away from the evening perplexed or even exasperated by what was, by any measure, a wilful reading of Verdi’s score.

Yet Mr Barenboim did not seem interested in anything quite so obvious. His reading, full of grand gestures and sudden intrusions, strove for the highest possible levels of drama and had little room for tidy formalities. The music that emerged was full…