Verdi’s stupendous setting of the Requiem Mass is unlikely to ease the raw pain of a very recent bereavement. Where Faure’s Requiem offers comfort and gentle reassurance, Verdi conveys majesty, awe and terror in an overtly operatic work of some 80 minutes duration.

Last Saturday evening’s performance, conducted by David Hill, deserves a place amongst the finest interpretations of the work to be heard in this hall.

On stage were the serried ranks of choristers drawn from Leeds and Sheffield Philharmonic Choruses, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – nearly 350 performers in total.

David Hill, music director of “the Phil”, is undoubtedly in his element marshalling large forces. This conductor achieved an astonishing lightness and eloquence from the choirs and orchestra in the Sanctus. The immense volume of sound was meticulously balanced in the Dies Irae so that the choral and orchestral lines were always clearly delineated.

In the Tuba Mirum, the spectacular antiphonal effect created by the eight trumpets, divided between the body of the hall and the orchestra, was enhanced by placing the extra instruments halfway back in the balcony.

The vocal writing for solo soprano in the concluding Libera me was heartfelt and intensely dramatic in the sensitive hands of distinguished Swedish lyric soprano Hillevi Martinpelto. Mezzo Susan Bickley was always deeply moving and she was an exemplar of good diction, whilst the tenor Paul Charles Clarke vividly projected the anguish of the Ingemisco. Matthew Best – usually a monochrome bass voice for my taste – on this occasion impressed with his dark-hued colouring of the vocal line.

A splendid finale to the 2010-11 Leeds International Orchestral Season.