Luigi CHERUBINI (1760-1842)
Requiem in C minor (1816) [43:38]
Tractus - Absolve, Domine [3:30]
Kammerchor Stuttgart
Hofkapelle Stuttgart/Frieder Bernius
Schola Gregoriana Tübingen/Wilfried Rombach (Tractus)
rec. 13-15 May 2010, Kirche Reutlingen-Gönningen, Germany. DDD
Texts and translations included in the booklet.
CARUS 83.227 SACD [46:12]
I would first refer the reader to the earlier review of the disc on this website
by Michael
Cookson, who gives a detailed account of the history of Cherubini’s
C minor Requiem and description of the work itself. He rightly assigns it
a Recording of the Month. I can only concur in his assessment of its
quality.
This very powerful and beautiful Requiem, which recalls Mozart’s in
some respects and which influenced Beethoven and others, has not received
the number of performances and recordings it deserves. I had the privilege
of singing in this work back in the mid-1970s and have had a real fondness
for it ever since. The recording that I know best and have used as a reference
is Riccardo Muti’s with the Ambrosian Singers and the Philharmonia Orchestra
on EMI Classics. This has been reissued most recently on a six-CD set (EMI
Classics 50999 6 29462 2 3) with Cherubini’s masses and D minor Requiem.
It is also still available on a two-CD set with the Verdi Requiem, as far
as I am aware. Muti’s approach is rather larger and more dramatic than
that of Friedrich Bernius. Significantly his tempi are slower in every movement,
though for some of them not by that much. As a generalization, I would say
that Muti’s looks forward to Verdi, while the Bernius perhaps has more
in common with Mozart. However, I don’t want to make too much of the
comparison. I have not heard the Muti in its most recent incarnation and have
it only on LP. Nonetheless, after hearing this stunning new Carus recording,
I fear the Muti may be showing its age. The period orchestra plays extremely
well and produces all the power one could ask for. The tam-tam crash at the
beginning of the Dies irae is overwhelming, the brass plenty powerful,
and the vibrato-less strings not only secure but also warm and refined. The
chorus is also excellent having both body and clarity. Indeed, I cannot imagine
a better account of the Requiem than this new one.
One drawback is the disc’s short timing. On the cover only the Requiem
is listed, but there is also this strange Tractus sung by Gregorian
chanters, separating the Gradual from the Dies irae and somewhat
diminishing the abruptness of the tam-tam crash. Presumably this was included
to make the work seem more a part of a Catholic mass than a concert performance.
The notes to the CD, which overall are superb, make no mention of the reason
behind its inclusion here. If preferred one can program it out so that the
Dies irae starts immediately after the Gradual. What else could
have been included besides the Requiem? Two other recordings, one by Matthew
Best and the Corydon Singers and Orchestra on Hyperion, the other by Martin
Pearlman and the Boston Baroque on Telarc, have the composer’s Marche
funèbre as a filler. This adds only six-plus minutes to the overall
timing, but the march with its use of the tam-tam similar to that in the Requiem
is quite appropriate. In addition, Pearlman also includes Beethoven’s
Elegiac Song on his recording. I have heard neither Best nor Pearlman,
but I cannot imagine either being superior to the Bernius. Despite its rather
short timing this new disc is highly desirable. In any case, quality counts
for more than quantity.
Leslie Wright
A highly desirable new recording of Cherubini’s C minor Requiem.
see also review by Michael Cookson