Voices en Masse - Brahms Requiem

Brahms Requiem is a standard choral work accompanied by orchestra. In this performance, international expert Simon Halsey CBE conducted workshops with community choristers from Tasmania, and three pre-rehearsed amateur choruses that support major professional orchestras: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus, West Australian Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. The event involved 400 singers plus 50 orchestral musicians on stage. Community choristers were placed in the front rows of the auditorium, with the three major choruses placed behind. Each major chorus proceeded onto the small performing stage (65 available positions for different movements) and sang 2-3 consecutive movements, and presented as the main chorus for the orchestra, while all other singers remained singing from the auditorium. The conductor was displayed on multiple large screens so that choristers and audience could see his face and hands at all times as he traversed 360-degrees throughout the performance. While an unusual format for a modern audience, this recreated an historically-informed perspective of how many large-scale performances were presented in the late nineteenth-century.