This is the third recording of Du Caurroy’s Requiem in as many years. Ensemble Doulce Memoire used counter-tenors on the top line and a mixture of voices and instruments. This new version has women sopranos and a simple organ accompaniment (the choir of New College Oxford was a cappella). The other main difference concerns the editions employed. Higginbottom appears to use the published version, which is unsatisfactory on several counts, and Raisin-Dadre includes one movement omitted there; but Suhubiette has the advantage of offering the only complete recording of Du Caurroy’s music (reconstructed by the French scholar Marie-Alexis Colin).
That said, it is difficult to recommend this new performance in the face of such impressive competition. There is simply a difference in class between a group that is solid and competent (qualities one would not wish to belittle) and two consummately professional ones. For ensemble, accuracy, sheer sound-appeal even, Higgin- bottom and Raisin-Dadre are in a different league. In addition, their complementary choices of programme are more satisfying, New College with its selection of rarely heard motets by Du Caurroy, and Doulce Memoire’s stirring evocation of the funeral of Henry IV in 1610 (at which the work was certainly performed). The latter is a thoroughly convincing exercise in liturgical reconstruction, to my mind much the strongest of the three recordings, in fact one of the best CDs of the past year. There is little more to say.
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