A World Requiem

John Foulds' A World Requiem was given its premiere at the first British Legion Festival of Remembrance in 1923, and was subsequently performed annually until 1926, after which it was mysteriously dropped. Conducted by Leon Botstein, this was its first performance for 81 years, allowing us insight into both its strengths and weaknesses, and into the possible reasons for its neglect.

A pacifist, theosophist and deeply committed socialist, Foulds was very much an anti-establishment figure. The text interweaves passages from the Bible with Hindu poetry and demands that we transcend patriotic and religious ideology by honouring the dead on all sides of military conflict - sentiments that strike deep chords now, as they doubtless did in 1923, though not, one suspects, in the intervening years.

The score is emotive and eclectic. Conceived spatially and written for vast forces, it takes Berlioz's Requiem as its principal model, though it also nods in the direction of the requiems of Brahms and Fauré. The use of quarter tones in some of the string writing hints at eastern music of which Foulds was fond. Chant-like choral passages interspersed with monodic baritone recitatives suggest that Russian orthodox church music may also have been on his mind.

The burning sincerity of the performance eclipsed any qualms about stylistic disunity. Botstein conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra with eloquent gravitas and the choral singing, from the combined forces of the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony and Crouch End Festival choruses, was superb in its mixture of hushed grief and exaltation. Among the soloists, baritone Gerald Finley - the priest-like celebrant of the whole vast ritual - was particularly outstanding in his fervour and commitment.