Being part of a choir has many wonderful effects. Not only is the very act of singing good for us, especially when it is with others, but it can often lead to many other amazing experiences. Just such an amazing experience occurred when, on Sunday 21 May 2023, our Arun Choral Society choir members were given the opportunity to take part in the annual Really Big Chorus at no other than the majestic Royal Albert Hall!

This year the chosen work was Verdi’s Requiem, a stupendous operatic work of the most incredibly moving music. It is a piece which has a special place in our choir’s hearts as we had learned it for months, reaching concert-readiness only to have to abandon it at the last minute because of COVID. After the long break of lock-down, we decided to start again and work it up for the concert which we finally performed at Arundel Cathedral. Of course, the upside of all this disruption is that we probably knew this work better than any other!

You won’t be surprised to hear that we jumped at the opportunity to be able to sing Verdi’s Requiem, especially as it was to be performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the very professional English Festival Orchestra and four professional soloists! Thus, when our alarm clocks rang out at 5.45am on a Sunday morning, we were overjoyed and leapt out of bed to get ourselves ready for the Really Big Chorus.

Maggie, our wonderful secretary, had even organised a coach for us and so we were able to have a hassle-free journey to London and an opportunity to chat and get to know each other even better. We were delivered right outside the Royal Albert Hall and started to see hundreds of other enthusiastic choir singers streaming towards the concert hall. They had not only come from our own country, but also many enthusiastic singers had come from abroad. Some had come, like us, as part of a choir but many came as individuals. The love of singing united all there and the excitement at the prospect of some good singing ahead was palpable to all of us as we waited for the doors to open.

At last, the doors opened and we went excitedly into the circular, red-bricked concert hall, the building a physical, tangible example of Prince Albert’s vision that music and culture are so important for the soul of a nation. We had a few minutes before the morning rehearsal started, so we walked across the road and admired the magnificent memorial to Prince Albert. His memorial is placed on a large plinth approached by four steps on four sides (making it a good meeting place) and his likeness is represented by a life-size golden statue standing inside a magnificent gothic chapel. He looks proudly across at the Royal Albert Hall, the building which has given our nation so many years of memorable Proms concerts and now was about to give us the extraordinary experience of singing in a huge venue together with hundreds of other voices.

Five minutes before the rehearsal started, we found our seats. The choir sat in a horseshoe arrangement with the tenors and basses sitting at the top, the first sopranos and first altos dressed in turquoise and blue sitting on one side, and the second sopranos in red on the opposite side. We spent some time trying to locate the other members of our choir by waving at them. Then, our conductor for the day, Brian Kay arrived. He climbed up the several steps to his podium and welcomed us and introduced the four soloists Rebecca Hardwick (soprano), Amy Hoyland (mezzo-soprano), Xavier Hetherington (tenor) and Ossian Huskinson (bass-baritone). All had superb voices as memorable as their names.

Then we began a long morning’s rehearsal with Brian, who at times complimented us and then qualified his remark with much humour which made us laugh. He gave so many interesting points to improve the quality of our singing and really pushed the men’s sections into making as big a sound as possible. He was a real pleasure. (I read later that he had been a member of The King’s Singers, had sung Papageno in the film Amadeus and was the bass frog in Paul McCartney’s We All Stand Together!)

By 12.30pm it was time for lunch and many of us went across the road into Kensington Gardens for a well-earned picnic. It was a lovely day and London seemed remarkably quiet. Families were enjoying relaxing or strolling in the park and young people quietly practiced their skate-boarding tricks or jogged along the ride around the park. There was also a lovely café inside the Royal Albert Hall where one could buy coffee, lovely cakes and various snacks.

The second half saw the exciting arrival of the orchestral players of The English Festival Orchestra formed in 1984 specifically to provide music for choruses in the southeast of England. They were extremely good and played with unbelievable sensitivity in the quiet parts of the Requiem, but also with terrifyingly, loud scary blasts from the brass sections in the Dies Irae.

Most of us had booked in for a light evening meal so that we would have plenty of energy for the evening’s performance. It was another really good opportunity to socialise with choir members in other sections which is always both interesting and enjoyable.

At last, the time of the concert arrived and we took our seats, marvelling at how many people now filled the remaining sections of the concert hall, all intent on enjoying listening to Verdi’s Requiem. Of course, it is a very popular work and the concert’s programmes were sold in aid of the Barts Cancer Institute. Then the orchestra took their seats and our excitement went up a couple more notches as the orchestra started to tune their instruments.

Finally, the lady soloists in their beautiful, elegant evening gowns and the male soloists looking handsome in black evening suits took their seats with Brian Kay, the conductor, dutifully following. He was dressed in a very stylish white evening jacket which really made him stand out. On his signal, the choir rose from their seats and the concert began. A rollercoaster of emotions ensued.

Quietly at first, the choir sings gently to remind God of his promises to Abraham, but then we are all suddenly plunged into the terrifying prospect of the Day of Judgement (Dies Irae) with the trumpets blasting (Tuba Mirum) and the all-powerful and terrifying King (Rex Tremendae) judging us. Verdi’s expert music-writing skills fling choir, soloists and audience alike into the highs and lows of a startling rollercoaster ride as everyone pleads for the dead person’s soul to be granted the light of eternal life. Heart-felt entreaties are made by the soprano soloist and choir to Jesus in the most beautiful of heart-wrenching music (Lacrymosa) and we fly amongst angels in heaven as the choir splits to sing the soothing holy Sanctus and the Lux Aeterna. The soul seems almost to be safely home, and we relax and are borne along on a river of golden music. But Verdi has not finished with us. He takes us to the very heights of emotion as choir, soloists and orchestra sing and play at full throttle reaching the most incredible final peak in the Libera Me as the soul makes its final plea ‘Save Me Oh Lord’.

I cannot think of another piece of music that ends on such an emotional high! Which is probably why many of the choir members were still buzzing and on a high several days later! Giuseppe Verdi is definitely one of the giants amongst composers!

With that, we made our way back to the waiting coach and dreamed and chatted our way happily home. If you are ever fortunate enough to be able to sing at a Really Big Chorus concert, I and all my travelling companions would thoroughly recommend it. But if you are not already in a choir, come and join us at Arun Choral Society! We can guarantee that you will wonder why you didn’t do so long ago!

Deirdre Tilbury, Arun Choral Society Member & Membership Secretary