Leeds Minster Good Friday concert of devotional music

LEEDS Minster’s annual Good Friday concert of devotional music has been integral to the illustrious musical tradition of this great city church for well over a century.

This year, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem - A German Requiem - was the main work in a splendid concert given, as it has been every year since 1977, by the St Peter's Singers of Leeds conducted by the great Dr Simon Lindley until 2019, and since 2021 by Alexander Woodrow.

Brahms conceived the Requiem, his largest scale work, as a consolation for those grieving rather than the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead. The composer selected Biblical texts of personal significance to be sung in his native German. Brahms was inspired by the opening line from the Book of Matthew: ‘Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted’.

Good Friday’s performance was given by a superbly blended choir of around 50 voices and the 30-strong National Festival Orchestra, leader Sally Robinson. John Longstaff re-orchestrated the parts for organ, written originally for trombones and tuba by the composer. These lean forces infused Brahms’ deeply moving humanist Requiem with an extraordinary degree of intimacy. Alexander’s scrupulously balanced orchestral and vocal textures were bolstered by the awesome sonorities of the Minster’s magnificent organ, played by Shaun Turnbull. Solo soprano Helen Winter’s projection of the glorious fifth movement was startlingly bright and crystal clear. Quentin Brown was the ever dependable bass-baritone soloist.

This beautiful programme of reflective music for Good Friday opened with more Brahms - the unaccompanied motets Warum ist das Licht gegeben and Geistliches Lied; plus Verleih uns Frieden by Felix Mendelssohn (with soft organ accompaniment played by Shaun Turnbull) and Christus factus est by Anton Bruckner. An audience of 350 showed its appreciation at the end of the evening.