Fauré: Requiem; Cantique de Jean Racine; Messe basse; 2 Motets, Op. 65

Featuring

Matthew Best
Mary Seers
Michael George
John Scott
Isabelle Poulenard
Celia Jackson

Janet Coxwell
Jenny Youde
English Chamber Orchestra
Corydon Singers
Gabriel Fauré

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Fauré trained as a church musician at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, receiving a thorough grounding in plainsong and modal harmony.

Composition History

The majority of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem was composed after the death of his mother on December 31, 1887.

Recording & Production

This recording uses the 1893 version of Fauré's Requiem, which is considered the most convincing compromise among the three completed versions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Fauré viewed death as a gentle release from earthly life, which led him to almost disregard the horrors of the Day of Judgment in his Requiem.

Compositional Technique

Unlike many other Requiems, Fauré's serene masterpiece significantly reduces the lengthy 'Dies irae' ('Day of wrath') sequence, which is a cataclysmic eruption in Berlioz's work.

Composition History

The Messe Basse, a joint endeavor by Fauré and André Messager (known for his ballet Les deux pigeons), had a more complicated genesis than the Requiem.

Critical Reception

Despite Francis Poulenc's dismissive remark that it was 'one of the few things I hate in music', Fauré's Requiem is indisputably his most popular work.