Proms 2024 Prom 6: Verdi’s Requiem by Verdi, From (2024/2024), Conductor Ryan Bancroft, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Giuseppe Verdi was moved to write his Requiem by the death of friends and colleagues. The result was a high-octane work whose expression of grief, faith and judgement drew such dramatic music from its composer that some thought it profane. First performed 150 years ago, and given its British premiere at the Royal Albert Hall the following year, it is one of music’s most vivid masterpieces. Following his Prom with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales last night (see Prom 5), Ryan Bancroft returns this time with two choirs, lending suitably large forces for this powerful setting of the Latin Mass for the Dead.