Anyone got anything to say about the soloists? I have to say that for me this was one of the most deeply felt performances I've heard - the soloists were living the music, I thought.

I loved Calleja (after a dodgy start in the Kyrie, when I was seriously concerned about the rest of the evening, he warmed up beautifully and thereafter was just effortlessly lovely, with no forcing or showing off (! almost unheard of in tenors...)). Furlanetto had tremendous authority and really connected with the music but seemed a little under-powered at the bottom of his range. Him Indoors was really surprised at how low his voice sounded even on a middle C - I did say that being a bass is as much about the sound you make as the notes you reach - perhaps an expert could put this better for me? I didn't really like Pentcheva's voice much, but she was committed and accurate and the ensemble work was good. Re. Poplavskaya I really couldn't make my mind up - I have never ever seen a singer do backbends in a performance! I did think that her tone was lovely and again there was a real connection (she really did seem to be a penitent in agony!) but it was a real shame that she didn't quite make the notes in the Libera Me - she had to put too much power into the Bb (sorry, I have the Giulini recording and she just didn't compare on that note!) and unfortunately her final ascending pianissimo phrase over the choir was flat :-(((

However, picky picky pickiness aside, what a performance, and what a response from the hall! Bychkov was PHENOMENAL.

ps should I have put this somewhere else?

Dulcet, you are absolutely right. In fact I was of a mind to post a message like yours but you beat me to it.
I have sung the Verdi, I have rehearsal accompanied it. Daughter has sung it twice and been in orchestra twice (inc recently at Kings College Cambridge). It is a work I have been steeped in for 40 years and it never fails to move me. But this performance had everything. ! Yes I might have a few picky points too ( I agree the bass lacked power at the bottom, but what a voice !)
Pity the phone rang ten mins before the end, so missed the last bit.

It was indeed phenomenal. I liked Poplavskaya. I'm not a Verdi requiem buff and could put up with the kind of slip you mention (and it was live, not recorded, so not likely to be perfect) I was really impressed at how she powered over the orchestra and nearly 400 voices! And I thought Calleja was wonderful - lovely voice.

I also have it in my bones it seems - although I have only performed it 5 times and only heard it live in concert once (and that a slightly iffy amateur performance) but I can't get it out of my system...

The ending was - well, I have never heard such a long silence at a concert, EVER.
As I said to our choir director (who only caught a little of it on the radio), it would make a devout catholic do a LOT of penance... absolutely spine-chilling picture of judgment day.

I'm really sad that they aren't televising Elijah, because that's a pretty amazing lineup of soloists and I think that it works best when treated as a dramatic piece (as was seen in the dress rehearsal last time I sang in it - when Elijah turned as he sang "It is thou, AHAB!" with a snarl... it made me think that perhaps it should be done with puppets...) and the orchestration lends itself to lots of closeups too. Oh well, will have to listen and imagine instead.

It is for moments like that I'm grateful to MrCJB for buying our new recorder - I'd never appreciated how useful it is to pause live TV before.

We do have a good Sony hard disk recorder, but I decided not to bother with just a few mins left.