Everything Russian conductor Valery Gergiev turned his attention to in the Welsh capital last weekend confirmed his Midas touch.

The three-day residency at the WMC by the opera section of his Mariinsky Theatre ended with the most moving version of Verdi's Requiem imaginable.

Not only did it remind us that St Petersburg's Mariinsky, Russia's oldest music theatre, boasts singers of majestic accomplishment but it also progressed with the impetus of an opera.

Gergiev's ability to begin in hushed tones and end in music that seemed to tap the same spiritual source was the mark of genius.

He was served well. Soprano Victoria Yastrebova, mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova, tenor Sergei Semishkur and -standard-bearing for the Welsh hosts - bass Bryn Terfel could not have been bettered as both a unit and as individuals absorbed in moments of private anguish and supplication.

Terfel was in the sublime mood that delivers delicacy and lightness of touch - here in the splendidly sung Confutatis, which contrasted well with Semishkur's preceding and highly-wrought Ingemisco.

Gubanova was imperious in all she sang, her powerful, lustrous voice in the Liber Scriptus doing duty as both anchorage and solemn affirmation.

The double chorus of the Sanctus allowed Gergiev and his superb choir and orchestra to reprise the drama with wave-like insistence, subdued inevitably by Yastrebova's final, heavenly Libera Me, its floated top C a miracle of poise and muted passion.