Human anguish

Being the month of November, the month during which the Christian world traditionally remembers the "ones who have gone before us", it is most appropriate that the Malta premier of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem was performed in Malta on November 18 and 19.

I remember the furore that the Requiem had caused when it was first performed and recorded about 20 years ago with Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kingston and Placido Domingo under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Here was Andrew Lloyd Webber, a composer of "musicals", presenting us with a Requiem that in future would hold its own with all the "greats" in the repertoire; Verdi, Mozart and Faurè being my own top three.

Although surprising in itself, Lloyd Webber caught every nuance of the ancient texts and created a masterpiece. Strangely enough this Requiem incorporates the best of the three; the grandeur of Verdi, the expressiveness of Mozart and the pathos of Faurè in a modern idiom in which even a bit of gospel rhythm plays a part.

Lloyd Webber composed this Requiem after the death of his father and was inspired by a true life story about a Cambodian boy who had to make the terrible choice of killing his terribly mutilated sister or being killed himself.

The result is a deeply moving and highly emotional musical adventure that frames the time-honoured prose of the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass inclusive the earth shattering Dies Irae. The treble, who reflects the boy in the tragic Cambodian story, is especially poignant.

There is nothing more hauntingly beautiful than the pure voice of a boy whose voice has not yet broken; a voice that is fleetingly transient in its splendour, as brief and ephemeral as life itself.

The undoubted highlight of Lloyd Webber's masterpiece is the Pie Jesu for treble and soprano and chorus. It is the kind of music that makes you want to weep simply because it is so eerily and uncompromisingly beautiful. It is precisely this particular section of the Requiem that, in my opinion, ensures that the Lloyd Webber will remain firmly ensconced in the top echelons of the genre.

It is always with feelings of ambivalence and regret that one reflects upon one's own and other people's mortality. We are born into a world of strife and trouble and yet no matter how much hardship and difficulty one faces at the final moment one is loathe to relinquish the false vanities that one would have so painfully built up and step into the great void. Sad, reflective and even terrifying as they are, the words and also the music of the great requiems are bringers of hope as throughout the text they invoke Jesus Christ to gather the departed unto himself wherein they will live in His lux aeterna, in aeternum.

Because like us the composers are human beings too, most requiems are infused by a shadowy half light, full of mist and symbolism rather like the paintings of William Blake whose illustrations of Dante's Inferno remain the most amazing depictions in illustrative history.

Requiems are full of the same human anguish that we all feel in face of death, whether our own or that of our nearest and dearest. While the text underscores our faith in an afterlife, the music betrays the tragedy and sorrow that our mortality entails. This is because the afterlife is as yet an unproven state of being. Nobody knows for certain that our spirit will live on in some unknown sort of way. That is why our faith has perforce to be strong as it survives on a very thin thread of pure and unadulterated belief that a certain holy, miracle-making carpenter turned rabbi, turned martyr, rose from the dead 2000 years ago and turned the course of history.

Of all world religions, Jesus was the only one to defeat death. Buddha may be reincarnated, Mohammed may one day be reborn however it was only the Christ who defeated death and that is what makes Christianity so different from all other religions.

Listening to a great Requiem and following the text will explain precisely what I mean and that is probably why St John's Co-Cathedral was packed to bursting point with queues snaking down St John's Street into Republic Street up to the law courts and beyond.

St John's itself, it almost goes without saying, is a fabulous venue; full of the high baroque panoply of death as it is, listening to good music being performed there is an aesthetic if not spiritual experience that transcends one to a higher plane. This is why the Maltese Church should ensure that all services that are held in this great historical and artistic gem are of the highest artistic quality.

I really cannot understand how the Church dignitaries have not yet cottoned on to the fact that, by and large, the Maltese have not taken to folksy sing-alongs led by some wannabe straining Pavarotti or nasal Callas on a mike who invariably drowns out any attempt made by the congregation to join in. Music and religious ritual should compliment each other and it is the sole purpose of the music to uplift the listener and enhance the words of the service to their fullest meaning. I am afraid that local experience since Vatican II has proved otherwise.

May I congratulate all those concerned for pulling off a project of this magnitude and quality and offering it gratis to the Maltese public especially the conductor, our own much respected Joe Vella, the choirs of St George's Basilica and Ely Cathedral, the soloists, Miriam Cauchi, Joseph Aquilina and young Hamish John Corson, organist Hugo Agius Muscat and our indefatigable National Orchestra.

On the practical level I must thank those people who made this event possible and who worked behind the scenes; notably executive producer Noel Calleja and all sponsors and supporters; the Malta Trade Fairs Corporation, HSBC Malta and Lloyd Webber's own The Really Useful Group. The overwhelming support given by the public is full proof that they are investing their money wisely and well.

Thank you.

kzt@onvol.net