THERE IS ALSO A SPLENDID GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE EVENT. HERE
It was quite an experience… I think it was the hottest day of the year, for one thing, and the venue, Holy Sepulchre Church is on Holborn Viaduct in the heart of the City of London. The rest of London Town was seething with people, but because it was the weekend the ‘City’ district was utterly deserted. Weird.
I was travelling in a party of six and we couldn’t get there in time for the final rehearsal, but I was able to catch a bit of the final run-through of the other piece on the bill, the dramatic ‘Magnificat’ by Paul Patterson. Holy Sepulchre is known as ‘the musicians’ church’ and hosts many concerts, and, for a big 16th century building, I thought the acoustics (something I had been worrying about) were going to be pretty good.
These sort of events can be rather like those parties where lots of people turn-up who you haven’t seen for a long time, but there isn’t a real chance to catch-up and talk properly. All sorts of lovely people came who I hadn’t seen for a very long time. I’m not going to write down a long list, but I really have to mention the two guys who actually enabled the Requiem to exist as a piece of music. In 1976, Michael Brand, a composer, conductor, arranger and music publisher, took down the music and with extraordinary accuracy transcribed my exact intentions from my instructions, which consisted of me wailing and crooning tunes at him, interspersed with chord sequences painfully extracted from a guitar that I couldn’t then (or now) play, or from the hideous autoharp, a sort of zither for idiots. For Michael, the whole process must have been like taking dictation from a chimpanzee. The other ‘father’ of the piece is Ricardo Odriozola who, 33 years later, took on the formidable job of making the thing performable for its eventual recording in 2016, and travelled from his holiday home in Croatia to attend the 12th July event.
I have written much elsewhere about Ricardo and his great influence on my ‘career’, and anyone interested in the long and strange story of the Requiem should check-out my website page https://www.judge-smith.com/…/upl…/RequiemMass-Story.pdf
Both Hugh Banton and David Jackson from Van der Graaf Generator were there, as were two gentlemen, long-time supporters of my work, who had travelled all the way from Israel so that they could attend the premiere. Amazing!
Before the second half of the programme, Ricardo and I had to get on our hind legs and answer some questions from the Conductor. I confessed to being a jumped-up songwriter with a massive case of imposture syndrome; quite justified in that distinguished musical company.
The performance itself was terrific. Conductor David Temple MBE is dynamic and decisive, and, in my experience (he conducted the CD version) demands, and gets, performances of the highest standard. Under his direction the Chorus (all 82 of them – I counted) were wonderful, with a big, clear and confident sound. The eight-piece Brass section and percussionist were amazing and made exactly the sound I had imagined half-a-century ago. The Tenor soloist, Alastair Brookshaw managed to provide exactly the vocal performance I have been so fussy about for this piece; not the sound of a Rock singer, nor that of a Classical singer, but the sound of a voice at home in the Theatre.
Using rock-band instruments in the reverberant space of a church can so often be the recipe for disaster, but these guys are pros and made it work. Chris Maitland, the Drummer managed the very difficult trick of really rocking-out on the kit without drowning out everyone else. Bass, Dafydd Lewis, and guitarists James Pusey and Jon Bishop (so, almost the same band that is on the CD) all did a magnificent job, bless ‘em!
The performance seemed to go down well; both with the audience and, very importantly with the choir, judging by the number of scores I was asked to sign. I think it is probably good fun to sing, and with any luck, David Temple and the Hertfordshire Chorus will want to do it again.
My profound thanks to all those of you who turned-up.
