Berlioz Requiem Grande messe des morts BBC Prom 39

Hector Berlioz Requiem (Grande messe des morts) needs grand performance spaces, so hearing it at BBC Prom 39 at the Royal Albert Hall was a rare treat. Read what Claire Seymour says in Opera Today: 

"Whether the choral forces were an equal match for the brass eruption, probably depended upon where in the vast hall you were seated. Certainly there was some outstanding choral singing; and in any case, despite its Napoleonic scale and celebratory, even aggrandizing air, the Requiem is a work of both spectacle and subtlety. The thunderous passages may be the most well-known, even notorious, but they are short-lived, and much of the score is restrained, Berlioz’s fine ear for instrumental colour always in evidence - even the 10 pairs of cymbals are employed softly en masse."