Fauré Requiem

If I had to pick only a handful of discs to single out as being of extreme worth to me personally - this would be one of them. There are just some works out there where the composer was inspired to record something truly extraordinary. This is one such work and this recording is the best that I know of. I have also spent a lot of time with the Fournet, Rotterdam recording Fauré: Requiem; Pavane; Pelléas et Mélisande . And while I think that is a fine recording, this ASMF recording with Marriner is a cut above. The playing is sensuous and refined, the tempos are perfect to convey the feeling of the music. This recording has lifted me up at some very low times in my life, and never ceases to convey power, wonder, and awe.

Conductors coming to the Fauré Requiem have choices: The original, 1888 version with only five movements of the eventual seven and very minimal instrumentation; the more commonly performed 1893 chamber version, scored with only the lower strings (violins reserved for the In Paridisum movement), plus harp, timpani, organ, horns, and trumpets, but without woodwinds; and the 1900 revision for full orchestra. Philippe Herreweghe recorded the 1893 version several years ago; here he opts for the full-orchestra setting. But there’s a nice hitch: it’s played on period instruments and uses a harmonium instead of an organ. It comes across as much leaner than other recorded “full” versions (i.e., Chung’s on DG, Dutoit’s on Decca), and indeed the details of the “big” score are nice to hear.

I have to admit that I purchased this more for its novelty value rather than anything else. Solo piano transcriptions of any of Faure's music are - to be honest - something of a mixed bag. Certainly of the orchestral pieces I have heard for piano in the past very few have summoned up more than a passing interest. It was with some surprise then that I listened to Emile Naoumoff's transcriptions for the Requiem and found a performer who has obviously dissected the music into its key ingredients and reconstructed it with both sympathy and knowledge……

Graeme Wright @ Amazon.com

The growing popularity of Faure's Requiem has made it fashionable in some music circles to be slightly superior about it. Revisiting this classic recording (which was first re-issued by EMI in 1989, having been available as a budget LP for over 30 years) reminds me why that is a wholly misplaced reaction. Victoria de los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bring real depth to their solos. The Paris Conservatoire under Cluytens dwells on the luscious instrumental textures at the surface of the work, but there is loss and longing in there too. Faure's Requiem sits on the cusp of religiosity and agnosticism. This classic performance captures its sheer warmth and humanity.

George Guest is generally regarded among the finest British choral conductors of his time. Some musicologists have attributed the endurance, if not the very survival, of the English cathedral choir to him. He made more than 60 recordings with St. John's Choir (Cambridge), covering a broad range of repertory (Palestrina and Mozart to Tippett and Lennox Berkeley) and garnering consistent critical acclaim.

Fauré’s Requiem (‘funeral lullaby’) written for enjoyment, as the composer put it, has a unique place in history. Its soft, simple and modest poetry conveys moments of gentle contemplation and moving expressiveness which are entrusted to both the choir and the two soloists.

Written between 1887 and 1890, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem is among the best-loved pieces in the choral repertory. Traditionally, Requiems are serious, prayerful laments for the dead. Fauré's was altogether different. In place of the usual somber mood, his is noted for it's calm, serene and peaceful outlook. The composer revised and expanded the work several times, but it is the original version that is performed here using period instruments and performance practices. This sublimne recording, featuring Ensemble Aedes and Les Siècles led by Mathieu Romano, also includes Poulenc's Figure Humaine and Debussy's Trois Chansons

The choral and instrumental parts for Gabriel Fauré's 1893 version of the Requiem, Op. 48, were discovered in 1969, and a score was assembled from them and published in 1994. Since then, this edition has been finding admirers, such as Laurence Equilbey and her hand-picked choir Accentus, who perform the Requiem with members of the Orchestre National de France on this 2008 Naïve release. The impact of the work is still quite strong and imposing in this chamber version, even when compared with performances of the full orchestral score of 1901, and it helps that the recording is full, deep, and vibrant, so textures are substantial and tone colors are rich, without giving the slightest impression that any forces are lacking.