Gabriel Fauré: Requiem
Fauré’s Requiem is masterpiece. Robust as it is intimate, the combination of choir, soloists, organ, and orchestra creates astonishing dramatic impact. Fauré worked on the setting over a thirteen-year period, during which time it received at least three performances. The original five-movement version, titled Un Petit Requiem, was performed at an architect’s funeral, conducted by the composer and with treble soloist in the famous ‘Pie Jesu’. ‘Robust as it is intimate, the combination of choir, soloists, organ, and orchestra creates astonishing dramatic impact.’
This new recording, conducted by Hervé Niquet and featuring the Flemish Radio Choir and Brussels Philharmonic, seems closer to the second iteration of the work, complete with seven movements and larger orchestral and choral forces. There are some unusual features, the most obvious being a group of sopranos performing ‘Pie Jesu’, which is usually the preserve of either soprano or treble soloist. However, different doesn’t necessarily mean worse, and the fullness of women’s sound, while without the purity of a single voice, lends a lusciousness to the movement it often otherwise lacks. Baritone Andrew Foster-Williams gives his operatic all in ‘Libera Me’, a highlight of the work and of this particular CD.
The recording occasionally features idiosyncratic Latin pronunciation, which is again a difference rather than a deficit. The following ‘Ave Verum’ and ‘Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross’, both by Gounod, although less grand than the Fauré, are still dramatic and grave, exquisitely performed by the Flemish Radio Choir. The absence of orchestra highlights the precision and delicious blend of the choir, and their capacity for well-controlled dynamic variation.
If you are a stickler for the pure, English brand of choral music, this is not the recording for you. However if, like me, you love the sound of a full-bodied choir with a luscious soprano section balanced out by a dramatic and weighty bass, then your record collection is not complete without this fantastic CD.
