(Continued)

'Requiem' (Verdi)
'Grant them', and Kyrie (Requiem o Kyrie) (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Bass and Chorus)
Day of anger (Dies irae) (Four Solo Parts and Chorus)
Day of anger (Chorus)
Hark the trumpet (Tuba mirum) (Chorus)
Now the record (Liber Scriptus) (Mezzo-Soprano and Chorus)
What affliction (Quid sum miser) (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano and Tenor)
King of Glories (Rex Tremendae) (Quartet and Chorus)
Ah! remember (Recordare) (Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano)
Sadly groaning guilty feeling (Ingemisco) (Solo Tenor)
From the accursed (Confutatis) (Solo Bass)
Ah! what weeping (Lacrymosa) (Quartet and Chorus)
Oh, Lord God (Domine Jesu) (Offertory for Soprano, Mezzo - Soprano, Tenor and Bass)
Holy (Sanctus) (Fugue for Two Choirs)
Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano and Chorus)
Light Eternal (Lux Aeternal) (Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor and Bass)
Lord, deliver my soul (Libera me) (Solo for Soprano, Chorus and Final Fugue)

When, in 1873, Manzoni, the great Italian writer, died, Verdi (then aged sixty) wrote this Requiem Mass in his memory. The work was first heard in England two years later, when the composer conducted the Royal Choral Society in it.
The Southern warmth of emotion and dramatic fire of the music distinguish the Mass from the majority of older settings. There is little benefit in making easy comparisons between the spirit of this music and that of the sacred works of Bach, Handel and Beethoven. It is best to listen to it without too rigid a conception of what sacred music should be. Whatever its divergences from the common outlook, its picturesque and often flamboyant ideas will bo felt to be sincere and powerful.

(to 22.20)