Mozart146;s Last Note

On Tuesday evening at Kamani, it was dark dreams that ruled the stage. Mozart8217;s powerfully haunting last work, the Requiem, composed in 1791, was performed with febrile excitement under the baton of the French conductor Yves Parmentier. 8220;The Requiem is one composition that summarises Mozart8217;s works. And it was a great challenge to perform,8221; said Parmentier, on his first visit to Delhi. The one-hour concert 8220;Mozart8217;s Requiem in Delhi8221; began on a sunny note though 8212; the Delhi Chamber Choir conductor Gabriella Boda-Rechner marshalled 60 singers to crank out a cheery ABC song by Mozart, followed by Argentinean composer Raul Maldonado8217;s stately Mi Canto del Sur. 8220;The joy of doing Mozart is that his each line is joyful and precise and you can easily gauge the movement,8221; said Boda-Rechner after the performance. Up next, the feisty conductor led the audience through a delicately nuanced composition, the biblical funeral cantata Gallia by Charles Gounod with soloist Aude Priya, who brought out a sense of immediacy to the composition. But it was the exacting Requiem in D minor, conducted by Parmentier with four soloists, which had the audience transfixed. The choir was accompanied by Hungarian-Moroccan pianist Marouan Benabdallah. Parmentier, who has directed the Requiem a dozen times, led the choir through the cohesive piece accentuated by soprano Sunanda Rao. The other soloists Shireen Sinclair, Prabhat Chandola and Antoine Redon also showed flashes of brilliance. 8212;Richa Bhatia