VERDI'S REQUIEM AT GALLOWAY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, MARCH 24, 2002

   Awesome is the word that best describes this event. With 200
plus singers*, the MS Symphony Orchestra, a quartet of outstanding
soloists**, and an overflow audience, Director Robert McBain has outdone
himself again. The choir was on the upper balcony near the chancel,
sopranos and altos on the left and tenors and basses on the right.
This arrangement worked quite well, providing a slight but welcome
directionality, at least to the audience in the center. The volume
of sound was overwhelming, at least as great or even exceeding
that at the Elijah last year, although, as typical for romantic works,
there were also many very soft passages. As usual, the organ provided a 
range of low sounds rarely available in symphony orchestras but vital 
to a work like the Requiem. In a work like this, with the resources 
spread out and with a large orchestra, two problems require special
attention. First, the orchestra should not overpower the soloists
(I once heard a single cello almost drown out a very large chorus!).
In general, the balance was good with all the soloists, and only
occasionally could I not hear them well. Second, it is quite difficult
to get this many voices and instruments to sing and play precisely
together when the sound is big and the tempo fast, but this they did
and exceptionally well; I heard only two slight and brief occasions of
imprecision - and I could be wrong about them. 

   Finally, this concert was tied to the September 11, 2001, tragedy.
This linking of music to life-events is crucial to the survival
of the live audience. My deepest thanks to Robert McBain for doing
this with the Requiem, and for a profoundly satisfying performance.

                                                    - Glenn A. Gentry

NOTE: A 2 CD Set recording of this event is available at Galloway Church
      (601)353-9691. Proceeds will go to the MS Symphony Orchestra
      Players Association.

*The Delta State U, Gary Beard, and Galloway Chorales, the Millsaps
Singers, and the LSU Schola Cantorum.

**Anna McDonald, Soprano; Viola Dacus, Mezzo-Soprano; Stuart Neill,
Tenor; and Horace English, Bass.