Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra & Leeds Festival Chorus
Leeds Town Hall

James MacMillan is recognised as one of the foremost composers of our time; a world premiere of one of his compositions is by definition a major event. Leeds Festival Chorus commissioned a work to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Macmillan responded with Deus noster refugium, a dramatic setting for choir and organ of Psalm 45.

The spatial qualities of Leeds Town Hall and the rich sonorities of its magnificent organ – played for this world premiere performance by Joseph Cullen - must have influenced MacMillan as surely as the virtuosity of the 140-strong Festival Chorus. The harmonies and counterpoint in Macmillan’s demanding choral writing were nailed with startling clarity by the chorus conducted by Simon Wright. The singers performed Macmillan’s latest opus with blazing integrity and palpable enjoyment. Little wonder, Macmillan’s uniquely recognisable musical language makes every note and every word of his chosen text count. A musical language balanced by the dark and sombre textures of the opening work, Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music K477, and a pellucid - but oddly character-less - reading of Haydn’s Symphony No 44 (Trauersymphonie) played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Wright.

After the interval, More Haydn - can there ever be too much of him? The Mass in Time of War (Paukenmesse) is full of broad textured beautiful, sometimes joyful music, with ominous-sounding martial trumpets and drums interrupting the Agnus Dei. The Festival Chorus and RLPO, now with Simon Lindley at the organ, were joined on stage by an outstanding solo quartet - soprano Mary Bevan, mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnston, tenor Robin Tritschler and bass Neal Davies. Davies’ noble Qui Tollis with chorus and solo cello was one of the glories of the performance conducted by Simon Wright with an acute sense of the high drama and the delicacy of this wonderful Mass.

Geoffrey Mogridge