Requiem Archive
BERLIOZ: Requiem – Richard Lewis/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sir Thomas Beecham – Pristine Audio
A superb renovation of Beecham’s rendering of Requiem by Berlioz
Verdi: Messa da Requiem (In Memory of Dmitri Hvorostovsky) – St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra/ Yuri Temirkinov – Delos
A hugely mounted performance, this by Termirkanov and company, of the great Requiem by Verdi.
John Harbison: Requiem – Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Giancarlo Guerrero – Naxos
A modern Requiem that excites and stimulates
Stokowski: Wartime NBC Performances = Works by COPLAND; MOHAUPT; LAVALLE; HANSON; AMFITHEATROF; ANTHEIL; SCHOENBERG – Pristine Audio
Stokowski and the NBC Symphony between 1942 and 1944 deliver to the world a series of world premieres.
VERDI: Requiem in Memory of Manzoni – World Premiere Recording – Carlo Sabajno – Pristine Audio
Pristine and Mark Obert-Thorn restore the premiere recording of the Verdi Requiem, whose might and majesty resound stylistically.
Requiem: The Fraternity (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter) Stereo CD – Sony Classical
Requiem: The Fraternity (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter) Stereo CD – Sony Classical 88985 41735 2 (5/12/17) TT: 54:34 **** Ethereal music will soothe and inspire you What a lovely and utterly absorbing disc. It’s a selection of (mostly) Gregorian Chants performed by The Fraternity, a small choral group – an international community considered one of the top specialists in Gregorian Chant in the world. This disc is their debut major label release. There’s 20 tracks of just sublime music here, recorded in an acoustic space the is just right for these chants. The tracks are not all vocal; track 2 is just a lonely tolling of a bell. The rest of the program consists of traditional chants, and the disc was a perfect respite from the hackneyed holiday music that is blaring in every shopping mall, airport and Christmas Tree lot. It’s not really holiday music, but rather a solemn funeral mass, but it still works for the season. Although this music will bring back many memories of the Latin mass, any listener should find this music calming and reverential. Musically, this is a flawless performance. It’s ethereal, mystical and absorbing. The recording was done at Our Lady of […]
Tigran MANSURIAN: Requiem – RIAS Kammerchor/Münchener Kammerorchester/Alexander Liebreich – ECM
Tigran MANSURIAN: Requiem – RIAS Kammerchor/Münchener Kammerorchester/Alexander Liebreich – ECM New Series 2508 (4/14/17) 45:25 ***1/2: Heartfelt music which reminds us of a cultural tragedy. The darkest side of human behavior has given history plenty of truly shocking incidents and stories for generations to ruminate upon and – one would hope – learn from. In April 1915 the Ottoman government within Turkey embarked upon the systematic decimation through both execution as well as neglect of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared. The Armenians were largely Christian in a country run by the Islamic Turks. This dark period of time provides the inspiration for Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian with his Requiem. I am not very familiar with the work of Tigran Mansurian but his own website tells us he is Armenian educated and has spent a number of […]
KLEIBERG : Mass for Modern Man – Mari Eriksmoen (sop) / Johannes Weisser (bar) / Trondheim SO & Choir / Eivind Gullberg Jensen – Pure Audio Blu-ray 2L
KLEIBERG : Mass for Modern Man – Mari Eriksmoen (sop) / Johannes Weisser (bar) / Trondheim SO & Choir / Eivind Gullberg Jensen – Pure Audio Blu-ray – 5.1 surround + stereo + mShuttle / 9.1 Auro-3D + 11.1 Dolby Atmos 48kHz / SACD multichannel and stereo; 2L-136SABD – TT: 67:59 ea. (2 discs) [Distr. by Naxos] *****: A gripping new work for our time served with excellent sonics Ståle Kleiberg (b. 1958) is one of Norway’s most distinguished composers. He has written a good deal of music, much of it as the result of a commission, and performances are given around the world. An earlier work, Requiem – for the Victims of Nazi Persecution, also commissioned by Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, had it US premiere in the National Cathedral in Washington and its recording appeared on Simax on SACD. The Mass for Modern Man succeeds other 2L recordings, Mezzotint, a collection of chamber works, Treble and Bass, concertos for violin and double-bass, and Kleiberg’s opera-oratorio, David and Bathsheba. As with the Requiem, Kleiberg includes among the traditional Latin texts of the Mass fresh literature to emphasise the contemporary nature of the work. In this case, between the Kyrie eleison, […]
RICHARD DANIELPOUR: Songs of Solitude; War Songs; Toward the Splendid City – Thomas Hampson, bari./Nashville Sym. Orch./ Giancarlo Guerrero – Naxos
Some very moving and well-written songs on topics of war. RICHARD DANIELPOUR: Songs of Solitude; War Songs; Toward the Splendid City – Thomas Hampson, bari./Nashville Sym. Orch./Giancarlo Guerrero – Naxos 8.559792, 60:48, (10/14/16) ****: For people who follow American contemporary classical music only casually composer Richard Danielpour might not be one of the first names they would manage to mention. However, he has for quite some time now been writing emotional and deeply attractive music and should definitely be thought of as one of our greatest living composers. He also has the gift and talent for being able to write well; technically proficient, well structured and very accessibly for the solo voice and/or chorus. This in indeed not easy to do. A very good example can be found by listening to Danielpour’s Ancient Voices, composed for soprano Hila Plitmann. Here we have two more splendid song cycles for solo voice and orchestra (in this case the soloist is the amazing Thomas Hampson.) Both Songs of Solitude as well as War Songs are written on themes of loss and war. Songs of Solitude uses poetry by William Butler Yeats to reflect on the moods very shortly after the “9-11” attack on […]
RUTTER: Visions; Requiem – The Temple Boys Choir/ Roger Sayer – Aurora Orch. – Collegium
JOHN RUTTER: Visions; Requiem – The Temple Boys Choir/ Roger Sayer – Aurora Orch./ solo violin: Kerson Leong – Collegium COLCD 139, 58:00 (10/18/16) ****: Something new and something old from John Rutter. This new CD pairs John Rutter’s most recent work with one of his most popular. Visions celebrates the utopian ideal of heavenly peace in in four movements, written specially for the solo violin of Kerson Leong, string ensemble and the boy choristers of the Temple Church choir. The Requiem of 1985 receives a significant new recording under the guidance of its composer. Visions was composed at the invitation of the 2016 Menuhin Competition and premiered at a Festival concert in London’s historic Temple Church by Kerson Leong, winner of the 2010 Junior Menuhin Prize, and the Choristers of Temple Church. They are joined by the Cambridge Singers and the young and vibrant Aurora Orchestra. Visions is a strikingly beautiful piece, lovingly played and artfully executed. The work is based on four biblical texts. Rutter has a large following, so this new work is certain to be well received and talked about. I think the appeal of the Requiem is Rutter’s conducting. The work has plenty of energy, […]
GYÖRGY LIGETI: Sonata for solo viola; Lux aeterna; Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin; ROBERT HEPPENER: Im Gestein – Susanne van Els, viola/Capella Amsterdam/musikFabrik/ Daniel Reuss – HM/Gold
A very eclectic but interesting collection of modern works. GYÖRGY LIGETI: Sonata for solo viola; Lux aeterna; Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin; ROBERT HEPPENER: Im Gestein – Susanne van Els, viola/Capella Amsterdam/musikFabrik/Daniel Reuss – Harmonia mundi Gold HMG 501985, 64:31, (8/19/16) [Distr. by PIAS] ***1/2: Hungarian “modernist” composer György Ligeti was one of the more prominent voices of the post-war avant-garde movement in eastern Europe. He was never a proponent of serialism and developed a style that was bold and unsettling, yet never very comfortably fit with any of the trends that academic Europe was so adherent to. So, he found himself needing to emigrate to Germany in 1966 and spent the rest of his life trying to forge a reputation for himself. To this day, Ligeti is known mostly for a few key and revolutionary works; such as Atmospheres, Requiem and the present Lux aeterna. (All three of which were used to great effect by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick in his revolutionary 2001: A Space Odyssey.) Lux aeterna has always been one of my favorite of Ligeti’s works and, together with the Requiem, created whole new approaches to choral writing. It is simultaneously a beautiful yet very creepy work that […]
BRUCKNER: Sym. No. 9 arr. for 2 Pianos & Mass No. 3 – HDTT audio-only Blu-rays
Two newly-recorded Bruckner items in hi-res surround on Blu-ray. ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in d arr. for Two Pianos – Till Alexander Korber & Reinhold Puri-Jobi, pianos – HDTT 4-channel 24/192 (2015) DTS-HD MA audio-only Blu-ray ****: ANTON BRUCKNER: Mass No. 3 in f – Cynthia Clayton sop./ Melanie Sonnenberg, mezzo/ Joseph Evans, tenor/ Timothy Jones, bass-bari./ Sigurd Ogaard, pipe organ/Houston Sym. Chorus/Moores School Sym./ Franz Anton Krager – HDTT 5-channel 24/96 DTS-HD MA audio-only Blu-ray, TT: 1:18:43 ****: Considering the orchestral impact of most of the Bruckner symphonies, to reduce the immense sonics, including major crescendos, of the full orchestra to just two pianos in an arrangement seems a bit unneeded. However, this live public concert (just recorded by John Proffitt last year at Stift St. Florian in Austria) by the two pianists does stress the clarity of Bruckner’s themes and counter-themes and shows that he really poured everything he had into his Ninth Symphony – which he worked on up to and including the day of his death. A German author and critic, Karl Grunsky (who died in 1943) transcribed all nine of Bruckner’s great symphonies for two pianos, and this is the last of them. This […]
DAN LOCKLAIR: Requiem – Choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Subito
Personal, private, and persuasive sum up this subdued and very intimate piece. DAN LOCKLAIR: Requiem – Choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC/ John Cummins, organ & cond./ Members of Winston-Salem Sym. – Subito Music, 38:30 [12/15/15] ****: I have been a fan of Charlotte native Dan Locklair for some time now. His music, in the best American tonal tradition, is always engrossing, engaging, and well-considered at every turn of the pen on paper. Currently Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, his is a muse that is also reflective in many ways of the best tradition of local influence and inspiration. Having grown up only a few miles from where he now works, I can testify to the particulars of his native region reaching deeply into his considerable art. This holds true for this meditative and optimistically bittersweet Requiem, given in its world premiere performance by the choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Don’t expect technical precision from the choir or orchestra—there are some moments of intonation slips and exuberant missteps. But that is hardly the point, as the human element in this work is only exacerbated by the very human performance […]
GOUNOD: Requiem in C Major; DVORAK: Mass in D Major – Anne Bretschneider, sop./ Christine Lichtenberg, alto/ Holger Marks, tenor/ Georg Witt, bass/ Hye-Lin Hur, organ/ Rundfunkchor Berlin/ Polyphonia Ensemble Berlin/ Risto Joost – Carus
Two deliberately under-stated choral works testify to the faith, pious and artistic of two choral masters.
DVORAK: Requiem – Christian Libor, sop/Ewa Wolak, alto/ Daniel Kirch, tenor; Janusz Monarcha, bass/Warsaw Philharmonic Orch. & Choir/ Antoni Wit – Naxos audio-only Blu-ray
One of only two hi-res surround versions of this lovely work.
JOHN FRANDSEN: Requiem – Teitur, vocal/ Sine Bundgaard, sop./ Andrea Pellegrini, mezzo-sop./ Peter Lodahl, tenor/ Halvor Fr. Melien, bass/ Danish Nat. Concert Choir/ Danish Nat. Sym. Orch./ Henrik Vagn Christensen – DaCapo
An enormous undertaking with terrific music, unfortunately flawed by the choice of soloist.
FAURE: Requiem; Cantique de Jean Racine; Messe basse—Gerald Finley, bar./ Tom Pickard, treble/ Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Orch. of the Age of Enlightenment/ Stephen Cleobury – King’s College
A reconstruction of the 1889 premiere for a liturgical setting.
PATRICIA VAN NESS: Requiem; The Voice of the Tenth Muse – Ruth Cunningham, sop./ Sanford Sylvan, tenor/ Coro Allegro/ David Hodgkins – Navona
A Requiem fully worth the name, with an interesting coupling that will appeal to more specialized tastes.
MOZART: Requiem – Genia Kuhmeier, sop./ Bernarda Fink, contralto/ Mark Padmore, tenor/ Gerald Finley, bass/ Netherlands Radio Choir/ Royal Concertgebouw Orch./ Mariss Jansons – RCO Live
Fabulous sound and singing, a little bit of interpretative waywardness, but overall a contender in the Mozart Requiem surround sound sweepstakes.
VICTORIA: Requiem (1603) – La Stagione Armonia/ Sergio Balestracci – Pan Classics
A well-groomed and intelligently-rendered Requiem of fine provenance.
“The Victoria Collection” = The Call of the Beloved; Devotion to Our Lady; Requiem 1605; The Mystery of the Cross – The Sixteen/ Harry Christophers – Coro (1 SACD+3 CDs)
Once again Coro has grouped some outstanding discs together and reduced the price—and a nice price at that.
VERDI: Requiem – Anja Harteros, sop./ Elina Garanca, mezzo-sop./ Jonas Haufmann, tenor/ Rene Pape, bass/ Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala/ Daniel Barenboim – Decca (2 CDs)
Barenboim comes close—really close—to giving us the ideal Requiem.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
