Atlantic Requiem review – Önaç gives historical slavery documents howling raging life
LSO St Luke’s, London From syncopated funk to the Latin requiem mass, Gregorian chant to bureaucratic recitative, the score to David Önaç new oratorio, premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra, is serious and beautiful How do you put a value on a human life? If you’re an insurance underwriter that’s not a philosophical question, it’s a practical one. The answer, incidentally, as calculated by Lloyds of London in…
Key points
- David Önaç's new oratorio Atlantic Requiem premiered at LSO St Luke's in London, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
- The work draws on historical slavery documents from the Lloyds archive, including a 1779 valuation of £45 per enslaved person.
- Reviewer calls Önaç a major new composing talent who deserves space to tell silenced stories.
Composer David Önaç's new oratorio Atlantic Requiem received its premiere this weekend at LSO St Luke's in London. The London Symphony Orchestra performed the work with an expanded BBC Singers and three soloists, with conductor Malcolm J Merriweather stepping in at the last minute.
The piece draws on historical documents from the Lloyds archive. Among them is a 1779 Lloyds of London valuation setting £45 on each enslaved person transported across the Atlantic alongside corn and other cargo.
What the documents describe
Court transcripts from two decades later describe a woman quarantined for smallpox, then bound, blindfolded and thrown overboard tied to a chair. The captain later expressed regret for the loss of what the review calls "so good a chair".
so good a chair
— the captain
How the music was received
The review describes Önaç's score as beautifully and seriously constructed, turning the piano's white and black keys into symbolic gestures of opposition, equality and perhaps reconciliation. Jazz and blues elements drift into the Latin requiem mass, Gregorian chant bleeds into bureaucratic recitative, and soloists soar but also scream.
Merriweather guided the performers through the music, though soloists Brittany Renee, J'nai Bridges and tenor Orson Van Gay II risked being overwhelmed from behind the orchestra. The review calls the two Sunday afternoon performances at LSO St Luke's, a venue too small for the project, a workshop for a work still under construction.
