Requiem (2006)

I have to recommend this box set of Brahms Symphonies and other works including his Requiem recorded in the 1990's by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Warner Classics released this edition in 2014 and it seems fitting for me to be the first one to review it now as Kurt Masur sadly passed away at the end of 2015. He had been the music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991 until 2002 and this had been seen as a very successful period for the Orchestra which had been a bit wayward until he took over.

Pere (or "Pedro") Rabassa is a Catalonian composer whose years – 1683 to 1767 – are nearly the same as those of Georg Philipp Telemann, and in his time, the standing of Rabassa in Spain was comparable to that of Telemann in Greater Europe. Some of Rabassa's music managed to travel to Europe and even to Spanish missions in the Americas. That it did not travel forward into the future as part of the mainstream Western repertoire is partly because Spanish Baroque literature as a whole, excepting that by foreigner Domenico Scarlatti, had no chance to compete for recognition alongside such titans as Telemann, Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. As it is said, "history is written by the winners," and in the eighteenth century, the "winners" were English.

Reger wrote the Latin Requiem in 1914 in remembrance of soldiers fallen in the 1st World War - but after completing approx 30 minutes of music, was talked out of completing it by a well meaning but entirely misguided musical associate. What remains is a massive, dense, hugely impressive torso of highly chromatic, late Romantic choral/soloists/orchestral music of the first order. Highly recommended.

Recently there seems to be an increasing interest in the music of Johann Michael Haydn. For a long time he was only mentioned as being the younger brother of Franz Joseph, and a good friend of Mozart, but his music was almost completely ignored. From time to time a record with sacred music or chamber music was released, but he was't appearing on concert programmes and in the record catalogue frequently. 2006 was the bicentennial of his death, and this apparently led to a number of new recordings with his music. One must hope this isn't a temporary wave, but the beginning of a thorough and serious exploration of his oeuvre.

A prize student of music theorist Simon Sechter and a good friend of Beethoven and Schubert, German composer Franz Lachner was appointed Royal Court Conductor in Munich in 1836 where he directed the Court Theater, the Court Church, and the Court Concert Hall for with pride, dedication, and professionalism for the next 33 years. However, the death of his patron Maximilian II and the ascension of Ludwig II, avid patron of Richard Wagner, effectively ended Lachner's career. Though he lived another 23 years, Lachner's music was rarely if ever performed.

In the era prior to recordings, the only way for an audience unable to organize a symphonic performance to get to know a large work was to perform it, or hear it performed, in a chamber or keyboard arrangement. Recordings of arrangements from the nineteenth century have appeared in a steady stream, and while they're no substitute for the real thing, it's interesting to observe the artistry of the individual arrangers.

This mammoth five-disc set is a wide-ranging overview of Serge Gainsbourg's career as a songwriter, composer, and arranger. It also showcases his ability to make actual singers out of actresses and models – there are a few duets here with Brigitte Bardot, and others. Those who are encountering Gainsbourg for the first time will no doubt be intimidated by this set, it is a lovely package that moves basically in chronological order; but the three-disc De Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre set is more focused and a lot more affordable.

You might accurately describe this program as a compilation of "great hits of Christian church music", including as it does Franck's Panis angelicus, Finzi's God is gone up, Mozart's Laudate Dominum, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, Lotti's Crucifixus, Howells' Magnificat, and the overrated, overwrought, overlong (and usually excruciatingly-sung) Hear my prayer by Mendelssohn. We also get a couple of Purcell anthems, O God, Thou art my God and Remember not, O Lord, Stanford's glorious motet Justorum animae, Duruflé's tiny masterpiece Ubi caritas et amor, and the choral setting of Elgar's "Nimrod" orchestral variation (Lux aeterna).

In the latter years of the nineteenth century, England was at its apogee as an imperial power and, as every Englishmen at the time knew, the foundation of that power was the royal navy. In those days, a land army was a fine thing for European wars, but you couldn't beat a navy for projecting imperial power – and nobody could beat the royal navy. An Irish Protestant of English lineage, composer Charles Villiers Stanford deeply appreciated the royal navy – who else could bring an English army across the Irish Sea to put down the an Catholic rebellions? – and his three most popular choral-orchestral works amply prove the sincerity of his appreciation.

If only one of Paul McCartney's varied musical strengths carries his oratorio, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart), it is his astonishing melodic talent: indeed, it is because of the piece's undeniable tunefulness that it is at all viable. This grandiose, neo-Romantic work for soprano, mixed choir, boy choir, and orchestra would seem unbearably tedious were it not for the chains of attractive themes that are laced throughout, and the monumental structure would collapse under its ponderous weight were it not for the light, lyrical touches that hold it up…