Such is the colossal stature of Berlioz’s
Grande Messe
de Morts (or
Requiem, to give it its shorthand title),
with its huge orchestral and choral forces, that live performances
and recordings are still relatively rare. It is good news, therefore,
to find a new CD set of the work on the market. And this one
is definitely worth investigating.
Conductor Sylvain Cambreling and chorus master Joshard Daus exert
a secure control over the massed forces of the SWR Symphony Orchestra
and EuropaChorAkademie - a band of professional young singers
from across Europe. Cambreling pulls out all the stops during
the fortissimo-plus passages, evoking some of the astonishment
that struck the first Parisian audience at Les Invalides in 1837.
The massed brass bands and timpani and cymbal crashes during
the
Tuba mirum (CD 1, track 3), for example, don’t
disappoint, and the uneasy conclusion to the
Requiem in
the final
Agnus Dei (CD 2, track 4) rightly leaves the
listener with a sense of unresolved foreboding.
But it is through its uncovering of the subtleties and oddities
of Berlioz’s score that this recording really succeeds.
Listen, for example, to the lilting upper strings wrapping around
the impassioned chorus during the
Rex tremendae (CD 1,
track 5) and you are immediately taken to the sunnier climes
of
Roméo et Juliette. Or try the unaccompanied
asceticism of the
Quaerens me (CD 1, track 6), and you
are reminded of the simple, devotional world of
L’Enfance
du Christ.
Where Cambreling and Daus occasionally slip is in their failure
to take sufficient risks. In parts, the EuropaChorAkademie is
too well-disciplined and polite. The opening
Requiem and
Kyrie (CD
1, track 1), for example, should sound pained and explosive,
as if the dead themselves are cracking open the earth. Equally,
tenor Paul Groves gives too safe a reading of the beautiful
Sanctus (CD
2, track 3). This simple, heartfelt yearning is set against a
restrained orchestra and chorus, and ends with dazzling cymbal
strokes. But Groves sounds too faint, even timid, and the orchestral
and choral support seems like empty gesturing.
But minor disappointments aside, this is a recording of great
emotional power and musical insight. Certainly one of the best
versions of the
Requiem around.
John-Pierre Joyce
see also review by Dan
Morgan
Paul Groves (tenor) 
