Fauré Requiem, Motets & Cantique de Jean Racine
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Jean (Jules Aimable) Roger-Ducasse, Pierre Villette, Gabriel Fauré
Label: Virgin Classics
Magazine Review Date: 8/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 62
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 545318-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Requiem |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Bournemouth Sinfonietta David Hill, Conductor Gabriel Fauré, Composer Nancy Argenta, Soprano Simon Keenlyside, Baritone Stephen Farr, Organ Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Cantique de Jean Racine |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
David Hill, Conductor Gabriel Fauré, Composer Winchester Cathedral Choir |
O salutaris hostia |
Pierre Villette, Composer
David Hill, Conductor Pierre Villette, Composer Winchester Cathedral Choir |
O magnum mysterium |
Pierre Villette, Composer
David Hill, Conductor Pierre Villette, Composer Winchester Cathedral Choir |
(3) Motets |
Jean (Jules Aimable) Roger-Ducasse, Composer
David Hill, Conductor Jean (Jules Aimable) Roger-Ducasse, Composer Nancy Argenta, Soprano Stephen Farr, Organ Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Author:
There is something I can’t quite understand here. This is the second time within a week that, care-of one record company or another, I have visited Winchester Cathedral. At their Stanford recital (Hyperion, 7/98) they allocated a seat from which one was powerless to rise though wishing all the time to be nearer; now they seem to think I would do better right at the back. Yes (perhaps they say): “from there you get the best perspective, the full chiaroscuro”. And it is true that at the first “ex lux perpetua” in the Requiem the crescendo, so welcome because one no longer leans forward to listen, does shine forth like sunlight illuminating the great East window. So perhaps it is worth sitting in aural dimness to enjoy that effect. But really I don’t think so, especially when in the Cantique de Jean Racine the organ, dim and distant at the start, almost disappears out of hearing when the voices enter. With a slow tempo (the timing is 5'53'' to Pople’s 4'59'' and Marlow’s 4'44'') the effect is not happy at all.
This is a pity because in many respects the performances are fine, as indeed one would expect them to be. The Requiem particularly wants a choir with good sopranos (or trebles, as here) and tenors, and Winchester is strong in both. The alto-tenor passage at the start of the “Offertoire” is beautifully done. Nancy Argenta sustains the “Pie Jesu” well, and Simon Keenlyside is the ideal baritone soloist. There is sensitive playing too, the brass fully effective (this is the 1893 version, edited by Rutter) without too much assertion, and the subtle instrumentation of the Agnus Dei is beautifully brought out. In the unaccompanied motets which complete the programme the choir deploy their customary intelligence and fine tone, their outstanding treble soloist, Kenan Burrows, doing excellent work for Jean Roger-Ducasse whose three Motets (1911) move, each in turn, to a well-placed climax. These ‘fill-in’ pieces might even have gone so far as to convert a somewhat mixed report into a more decisively favourable one, but I think on the whole one is better off with Faure’s Messe basse (Pople), Durufle’s motets (Marlow) or Saint-Saens, Debussy and Ravel (Gardiner). '
This is a pity because in many respects the performances are fine, as indeed one would expect them to be. The Requiem particularly wants a choir with good sopranos (or trebles, as here) and tenors, and Winchester is strong in both. The alto-tenor passage at the start of the “Offertoire” is beautifully done. Nancy Argenta sustains the “Pie Jesu” well, and Simon Keenlyside is the ideal baritone soloist. There is sensitive playing too, the brass fully effective (this is the 1893 version, edited by Rutter) without too much assertion, and the subtle instrumentation of the Agnus Dei is beautifully brought out. In the unaccompanied motets which complete the programme the choir deploy their customary intelligence and fine tone, their outstanding treble soloist, Kenan Burrows, doing excellent work for Jean Roger-Ducasse whose three Motets (1911) move, each in turn, to a well-placed climax. These ‘fill-in’ pieces might even have gone so far as to convert a somewhat mixed report into a more decisively favourable one, but I think on the whole one is better off with Faure’s Messe basse (Pople), Durufle’s motets (Marlow) or Saint-Saens, Debussy and Ravel (Gardiner). '
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