Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 (Requiem)

"Truly it was of frightening greatness," wrote Berlioz after the Requiem 's première. The massed timpani of the "Tuba mirum" produced an "indescribable shock". The chief priest wept uncontrollably, while one of the choral singers suffered a nervous breakdown. Thankfully, there seems to have been no such casualty among the singers in this "live" performance from Stuttgart. The rich, ample acoustics of the Beethovensaal give full value to Berlioz's vast spatial effects, most spectacularly the four brass bands that herald the timpani onslaught in the "Tuba mirum". Yet Norrington's concern for clarity of line and articulation, and the carefully judged balances, mean that we hear far more than usual of Berlioz's brilliant and bizarre orchestral detail. Norrington's dramatic urgency, allied to choral singing of thrilling body and bite, make the apocalyptic movements duly overwhelming. No less moving is the choir's luminous delicacy in the "Quid sum miser" and "Quaerens me" - music of Cistercian purity and austerity - while Toby Spence brings a calm, rapt beauty to the cruelly high solo in the "Sanctus". A magnificent achievement, to be set alongside Colin Davis's recordings of this awesome work. Richard Wigmore, Telegraph