Fauré Requiem

Both Duruflé and Fauré wrote their Requiems for choir and organ first. The orchestrations were afterthoughts bending to the excesses of public appeal and publishers' demands, at least that's what I was taught in college. Both works can be wonderful with orchestra and on this CD, the consistently excellent St. Martin in the Fields gives a beautiful interpretation of the Fauré Requem with orchestra.

John Rutter - Requiem & other sacred music (2003)
Timothy Brown - Choir of Clare College, Cambridge - City of London Sinfonia
Choral | EAC | FLAC+log+cue | booklet scans | Naxos 8.557131 | 1CD | 241 MB

Anyone who has ever sung the Rutter `Requiem' gets it in their bones, and it stays there. This may not be the most profound Requiem ever composed, but it is certainly one of the most beautiful.

This 2016 release followed on an immensely successful 2014 performance of the Fauré Requiem, Op. 48, and in many ways it's a partner to the earlier recording. The Fauré had a historical-performance aspect, re-creating the 1889 premiere even down to the specific organ stops used. In this case, historical performance is not involved: the version of the Duruflé Requiem performed is not the original, but a 1961 revision for mezzo-soprano, chorus, organ, and chamber orchestra. But the forces bring the music close to the overall effect of the Fauré, with boy sopranos of the Choir of King's College connecting the two performances. In both recordings, the organ is brought to the foreground and issues almost electronic-like sounds that shoot beams of mystic light through the small Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It's gorgeous, and it might easily result in a revival for this version of the work. Conductor Stephen Cleobury does wonderfully with his mezzo-soprano soloist: for sampling, you could luxuriate in the "Pie Jesu," with its restrained instrumental backing making the music less operatic and more cantata-like. You also get a pair of little-known Duruflé works, the Quatre Motets sur des thèmes Grégoriens, Op. 10, and the Messe "Cum jubilo," Op. 11, with chorus, organ, and one soloist; each of these could challenge the conception of Duruflé as a one-hit wonder. Yet the biggest news here is the Duruflé Requiem itself, and the way the work retains its slightly otherworldly quality in this intimate version.

Après un rêve is the title of one of Gabriel Fauré’s most beloved melodies. We have selected the quintessence of the composer’s catalogue in this collection of beautiful tunes featuring Jacqueline du Pré, Sabine Devieilhe, Philippe Jaroussky or Barbara Hendricks.

RCA Red Seal is a classical music label and is now part of Sony Masterworks.
The Red Seal label was begun in 1902 by the Gramophone Company in the United Kingdom and was quickly adopted by its United States affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and its president, Eldridge R. Johnson. Distinctive, red paper information labels affixed to the centre of the two affiliated companies' black shellac discs inspired the name.

Among the sacred works for voice and orchestra that feature in the present release, only the Requiem has any bearing on the duties that Fauré performed as choirmaster and organist at the Madeleine in Paris between 1877 and 1906. Practically all of the works that he wrote for the Madeleine included an organ accompaniment. Fauré found his duties at the church constricting. Even when he wrote his Requiem, which strikes such a singular note, it was to distance himself from the sort of liturgical music with which he was habitually involved. “As to my Requiem,” he explained in 1902 with reference to his most famous work, “I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different.” We should not forget that Fauré did not believe in God, which perhaps prevented him from blossoming as a church composer. Despite this, the present programme explores an interesting facet of his work.