Réka Kristóof (s), Dorottya Láng (a), István Horvath (t), Marcell Bakonyi (b), Hungarian Radio Choir, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Riccardo Frizza (dir)

NAXOS 8574589 [65:50]

★★★★

Elisabetta Brusa (b 1954) explains in a booklet note that composing a Requiem had been an ambition for most of her career, despite youthful atheism, but that she knew she had to wait to do it until she had accumulated enough life experience to be able to produce a mature work. In 2020 she felt ready to contemplate the task, and composed her Stabat Mater as a trial piece, drawing on the last moments of her parents, the idea of Christ’s suffering on the cross and her love of music, painting and sculpture for inspiration. The Requiem, dedicated to her parents, followed in 2020/21 and both pieces are recorded here for the first time. With its lush, romantic orchestration and dramatic contrasts, the Requiem almost matches Verdi’s in its operatic scale, infused with the soundworlds of Fauré, Poulenc, Frank Martin and other 20th-century composers and is very well performed. The lyrical, keening Stabat Mater for solo soprano and orchestra is a real tour de force by Réka Kristóf.

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of Choir & Organ. Never miss an issue – subscribe today