FAURE: Requiem, Op. 48 (1893 version); FAURE/MESSAGER: Messe des Pecheurs de Villerville – Agnes Mellon, soprano/Peter Kooy, baritone/La Chapelle Royale/Ensemble Musique Oblique/Philippe HerrewegheHarmonia mundi Gold HMG 501292, 56:15 **** [Enhanced CD – some CD-ROM data included]:Conductor Philippe Herreweghe, working scrupulously with Roger Delage, has reconstructed Faure’s score of the darkly-hued Requiem (c. 1893-94) the composer meant for cathedral rather than concert hall performance. Even with three trombones added, the effect becomes exquisitely intimate, given the Spartan orchestration of the original, without high strings and woodwinds. Of course, the Sanctus retains the solo violin over harp and chorus, with horn punctuations at the Hosanna in excelsis. The suspended-motion Pie Jesu emerges out of a mystical light, the organ pedal and oboe stop tinting the sky. Agnes Mellon approximates the sound of a vibrato-less boy soprano as closely as I have heard, almost a “white” color I associate with Teresa Stich-Randall. The Agnus Dei projects a passionate Heaven, the baritones over the organ and string accompaniment evoking every kind of divine mercy and grace. Add the female voices and harp to the mix, and the valediction proves quietly overwhelming. Peter Kooy’s hearty baritone almost overwhelms the text of the Libera me, although Herreweghe’s approach is far from modest and restrained; rather, it conveys in microcosm the terrors of the Last Trump. Wagner’s Magic Fire Music transmogrified into diaphanous snowflakes, the In Paradisum hovers in some remote aether far from earthly pain, a vision of the Holy City.
The modest, five-movement Mass for the Fishermen of Villerville (1881) exists as a result of Faure and Andre Messager’s sojourn into Normandy, where a ladies’ chorus required a vocal composition of some solemnity. In 1882, the work was rescored with winds, string quartet and harmonium. Delicate and charming, the piece owes debts to Gounod which it repays with gentle, lilting phraseology, as in the perky, martial Gloria with its bucolic, clarinet evocations. The brief Sanctus’ opening sounds like the Missa Luba momentarily, then harmonium and mezzo-voce chorus offer a melody John Rutter would envy. The O Salutaris, with violin obbligato, is all Messager (as is the Kyrie) and sounds like a plaintive college-fraternity song. The Agnus Dei proceeds with that luminous, dark harmony that defines the Faure style, although the melody resembles Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile from Op. 11. A perfectly ingratiating reissue disc (rec. 1988) in gorgeous sonics, which the avid Faure connoisseur will relish for its unique rendition of the Requiem.
–Gary Lemco
