Today marks the 125th anniversary of the first performance of Verdi's great choral work Requiem. The Culwick Choral Society, itself just over 100 years old, is tonight joined by St Eugene's Cathedral Choir, Belfast Community Choir and Armagh City Choir at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
The combined choirs of 204 voices as well as soloists Orla Boylan (soprano), Deirdre Cooling-Nolan (contralto), David Fieldsend (tenor) and Frank O'Brien (bass), under the Culwick musical director, Colin Block, will be accompanied by Belfast's Studio Symphony Orchestra.
On May 22nd, 1874, a chorus of 140 singers and an orchestra of 100 were conducted by the composer at his chosen venue, the Church of San Marco in Milan. So rapturous was the response that within three days Verdi directed a second performance at La Scala.
Requiem then went on tour to London, Vienna and Paris.
Initially dismissed by the famous German conductor, Hans von Bulow, as too vast for a liturgical piece, Requiem had an important supporter in Brahms who saw it as a work of genius.
Verdi was a composer of operas, and Requiem is highly operatic. When he came to compose it he was 60, with all save two of his operas behind him but a further 25 years to live.
Requiem had an unusual genesis. When Rossini died in 1868 Verdi suggested that several Italian composers collaborate in writing a memorial requiem. The project collapsed.
Five years later the poet and Risorgimento patriot Alessandro Manzoni, another of Verdi's heroes, died. Verdi paid tribute in the way he knew best.
