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Grande Messe Des Morts

The first time that I heard the Berlioz  'Grande Messe Des Morts' was in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral over thirty-five years ago.  It still delights me and fills me with awe when I hear it today. First of all the tremendous physical scale of the work!  For example - in addition to the mass choirs and oversize orchestra, with 16 timpani drums and extra brass, there are extra trumpeters.  I can still remember that the trumpeters were positioned high up on the flying nave suspended perhaps 20 meters above our heads, and when they blasted out in the' Rex Tremendae'- the hairs on the back of my neck raised up in appreciation of the truly fantastic reverberations that bounced around the sandstone walls of the vast space of one of Britain's largest Cathedrals.         


The 'Lacrymosa' movement is my favourite - in my younger days I once wrote some love-type lyrics to it - alas, they're now lost.  I still believe it would make a wonderful 'Pop Song.