Boston Classical Review

Christopher Wilkins led the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem Wednesday night. Photo: Michael Dwyer

There are plenty of reasons not to perform Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem outdoors. Several of them—ambient traffic noise, police and ambulance sirens, oblivious cyclists and pedestrians, the incessant thrum of the ice cream truck parked in front of the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge—regularly intruded on the Boston Landmark Orchestra’s presentation of that iconic work Wednesday evening at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell.

So did some unanticipated distractions, like the flock of geese that made its presence known vocally while parading down the Esplanade’s sidewalk during the Mass’s “Liber scriptus” section. The last (which provoked further excited responses from the night’s bevy of canine guests) had the effect of injecting an unexpected jolt of levity into the rite’s later “salva me” injunctions.

Photo: J. Blumhofer

Even if the night’s setting wasn’t conducive to an atmosphere of spiritual devotion, there was much to admire in the performance itself—and that alone was enough to justify BLO and music director Christopher Wilkins’ choice to go against received wisdom in this, the penultimate concert of their 25^th-anniversary summer season.

Verdi’s 1874 score stands among the most theatrical of sacred settings and the conductor’s conception of the whole demonstrated a willingness to trust the music’s ingrained sense of pacing and drama. Tempos were fluent, phrasings natural. Despite the Hatch Shell’s less-than-ideal amplification system, a sensitivity to texture and articulation between soloists, chorus, and orchestra was manifest across the performance.

The night’s vocal contingent was anchored by the Cantata Singers and One City Choir. For the event, the groups were split, one in front of the orchestra, one behind it. Despite that treacherous setup, the collective delivered their parts with a fervor that rightly impressed in the “Dies irae’s” big moments as well as the “Libera me’s” vigorous fugue. Though the “Sanctus” veered a bit towards legato, the choirs brought creditable exuberance to its ecstatic counterpoint.

True, some subtle moments—like the chorus’s sotto voce echoes at the beginning and end of the “Libera me”—fell victim to the urban environment. But, overall, the Requiem’s discreet episodes projected: the “Agnus Dei” boasted a particularly appealing vocal blend between all concerned.

The night’s solo quartet was likewise impressive.

Their contributions as a collective in the “Quid sum miser,” “Offertorium,” and “Lux Aeterna” were shapely and smaller subsets—like the duet between soprano Felicia Moore and mezzo-soprano Erica Brookhyser in the “Recordare”—proved stylish. Tenor Jonghyun Park brought appealing lyrical grace to his solo in the “Ingemisco,” while bass-baritone Christopher Humbert Jr.’s account of the “Confutatis” was big and warm-hearted.

Though the voices took pride of place in the mix, BLO delivered the Requiem’s instrumental part with brio. The exposed runs in the “Dies irae” iterations were rhythmically tight and fiery, while the “Tuba mirum’s” stereophonic effect held its own with the elements. Furthermore, Wilkins crafted an inviting sense of space and shape in the “Lacrimosa,” while the contrasts of light and shade in the orchestral writing during the “Lux aeterna” were ear catching.

To preface the Verdi, Cantata Singers conductor Noah Horn led a select group from both choirs and members of the BLO in two movements from Randall Thompson’s The Testament of Freedom.

Premiered in 1943, the four-movement work’s settings of words by Thomas Jefferson is unabashedly direct and accessible. Fittingly, Wednesday’s account of its outer sections (“The God who gave us life” and “I shall not die without a hope”) were noble and rousing. One came away from the experience hoping for a chance to hear these forces in a complete account of this music sometime soon—but ideally in a proper, enclosed setting.

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra performs music by Mendelssohn, Anna Clyne, Respighi, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns 7 p.m. August 12 at DCR Hatch Memorial Shell. landmarksorchestra.org

Photo: Michael Dwyer

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