Fauré Requiem by Hervé Niquet / Flemish Radio Choir

Gabriel Fauré

Hervé Niquet / Flemish Radio Choir

Fauré Requiem

Format: CD
Label: Evil Penguin
UPC: 0608917720129
Catnr: EPRC 0015
Release date: 26 September 2014
Notify when available

1 CD		Notify when available

Label
Evil Penguin

UPC
0608917720129

Catalogue number
EPRC 0015

Release date
26 September 2014

"I can sum up this performance quite easily: it’s a very fine one. Indeed, it’s one of the very best performances of the 1893 version that I can recall hearing on disc. These excellent and thoughtful performances, set down in two different venues and several months apart, are recorded in clean, clear sound. As I said at the start, this is a stylish release."

Musicweb-International, 30-1-2015

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Over the last 500 years, man’s mortality has inspired a genre of unsurpassed profoundness in Western art music: whether conveying fear of death, hope of life after death, or just solace for those who stay behind, the Requiem is at once the rawest and most comforting musical embodiment of the fact that life on earth is finite.

On a series of five albums, acclaimed conductor Hervé Niquet leads the Flemish Radio Choir in new recordings of iconic Requiems (by Brahms or Mozart), but he also delves into unjustly neglected music for the departed, such as the masses by Maurice Duruflé (1947) or Alfred Desenclos (1963).

The most imminent release in the series features the well-known Messe de Requiem by Gabriel Fauré (1888), which – recorded in the original chamber version with soloists of the Brussels Philharmonic – bears heart-warming testimony to Fauré’s desire to write “a lullaby of death, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than a painful experience”.
Though nothing comes easier than eternal rest after Fauré’s lament, Ein Deutsches Requiem by Brahms – which will be the second instalment in the series – is worth a little longer sojourn on earth…

Over de afgelopen 500 jaar heeft de sterfelijkheid van de mens een belangrijk genre geïnspireerd in Westerse muziek. Of het nu gaat om de boodschap van de angst dood, de hoop op leven na de dood, of de troost voor degene die achterblijven, het Requiem is een van de puurste muzikale belichamingen van het feit dat het leven op aarde eindig is.

In een serie van vijf albums leidt de vermaarde dirigent Hervé Niquet het Vlaams Radiokoor in een nieuwe opname van iconische requiems (zoals die van Brahms en Mozart), maar duikt ook de onterecht verwaarloosde muziek voor de doden, zoals de missen van Maurice Duruflé (1947) en Alfred Desenclos (1963)

Op dit eerste album wordt het welbekende Messe de Requiem van Gabriel Fauré gepresenteerd, opgenomen in de originele kamerbezetting met solisten van Brussels Philharmonic, om zo recht te doen aan Fauré's wens om een "slaapliedje te schrijven voor de dood, een streven naar geluk, boven een pijnlijke ervaring."

In den letzten 500 Jahren haben moralische Themen immer wieder die westliche Kunstmusik inspiriert: Angst vor dem Tod, die Hoffnung auf ein Leben nach dem Tod oder auch nur der Trost der Hinterbliebenen, das Requiem ist wohl der tröstendste musikalische Inbegriff für die Tatsache, dass das Leben auf der Erde endlich ist.

Hervé Niquet leitet den Flemish Radio Choir in einer Serie von fünf CDs durch verschiedenste ikonische Requiem-Vertonungen (von Brahms bis Mozart) und erforscht mit ihnen auch zu Unrecht stiefmütterlich behandelte Musik für Hinterbliebene, wie beispielsweise die Messen von Maurice Duruflé (1947) oer Alfred Desenclos (1963).

Die erste Veröffentlichung aus dieser Serie wird die bekannte Messe de Requiem von Gabriel Fauré (1888) darstellen, welche - aufgenommen in einer Kammerversion mit Solisten der Brüsseler Philharmonie - Faurés Verlangen "ein Schlaflied auf den Tod, eine Hoffnung auf Glück im Himmel, statt einer schmerzhaften Erfahrung" zu komponieren auf herzerwärmende Art und Weise beweist.

Negli ultimi 500 anni, la morte dell’essere umano ha ispirato un genere d’insuperata profondità: che comunichi la paura della morte, la speranza della vita dopo la morte, o soltanto la consolazione per quelli che restano, il Requiem è l’espressione musicale ad un tempo più cruda e più confortante del fatto che la vita sulla terra ha una fine. In una collana di cinque CD, il celebre direttore Hervé Niquet guiderà il Coro della Radio Fiamminga in nuove registrazioni di Requiem emblematici (di Brahms o Mozart), ma si addentrerà anche nel repertorio per i defunti ingiustamente dimenticato, come le Messe di Maurice Duruflé (1947) o di Alfred Desenclos (1963).  
La prima uscita della collana presenta la celebre Messe de Requiem di Gabriel Fauré (1888), che – registrata nella versione da camera originale con i solisti della Brussels Philharmonic – rispecchia in modo toccante il desiderio di Fauré di scrivere una «ninnananna funebre, un’aspirazione verso la felicità dell’al di là, più che un’esperienza dolorosa».

Artist(s)

Brussels Philharmonic Soloists

Flemish Radio Choir

The Vlaams Radio Koor (Flemish Radio Choir) was founded in 1937 by the Belgian public broadcaster of the day. Today it has become a choir of exceptionally high quality that counts both domestically and internationally among the top ensembles. The 24 professional singers rehearse under the baton of chief conductor Hervé Niquet in Studio 1 of the well-known Flagey building in Brussels, and perform throughout Flanders and Europe.

less

Hervé Niquet (conductor)

Hervé Niquet, chief conductor of the Flemish Radio Choir as of 2011, is a passionate musician like most of the composers of Baroque music whose works he enjoys. He studied not only harpsichord, piano and organ, but also the lyric arts and conducting. He considers the musical profession from a researcher’s perspective, and thus gives priority to primary sources in order to move beyond established conventions and customs. The experience he garnered from working with several major Baroque ensembles laid the basis for his special connection with the French ‘Grand Motet’ of the 17th and 18th centuries.
His great desire to bring new life to this unknown repertoire resulted in 1987 in the establishment of Le Concert Spirituel. Over twenty years, this ensemble has become the reference point for Baroque music.
In the same spirit, and starting from the principle that over the centuries there has been only one ‘French music’, Hervé Niquet conducts various eminent orchestras, including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Sinfonia Varsovia, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Rias Kammerchor, the Kammerorchester Basel, and Brussels Philharmonic.
In 2009, he participated in the foundation of the Centre de musique romantique française, also known as Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice. This led, among other things, to a prestigious project in collaboration with the Brussels Philharmonic and with the Flemish Radio Choir: a CD collection with music from the Prix de Rome and rarely performed works from the French Romantic repertoire. The first CD of the series is devoted to Debussy (2009), the second volume consists of neglected works by Saint-Saëns (2010), the third disc features the work of Charpentier (2011) and the fourth volume (2012) is dedicated to d’Ollone. In the meantime, new series have been launched featuring portraits of composers and French opera (Joncières’ Dmitri and David’s Herculanum).
Hervé Niquet has been made Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

less

Composer(s)

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

less

Press

I can sum up this performance quite easily: it’s a very fine one. Indeed, it’s one of the very best performances of the 1893 version that I can recall hearing on disc. These excellent and thoughtful performances, set down in two different venues and several months apart, are recorded in clean, clear sound. As I said at the start, this is a stylish release.
Musicweb-International, 30-1-2015

Beautiful!
Hermann, 22-10-2014

The melody line is always perfect and the sound of an exquisite beauty
FonoForum, 15-10-2014