Rosner: Requiem, Op. 59

Featuring

Kelley Hollis
Feargal Mostyn-Williams
Thomas Elwin
Gareth Brynmore John
Nicholas Palmer
David Temple

Crouch End Festival Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Arnold Rosner

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Arnold Rosner was adamantly opposed to serialism, the dominant style in university music departments during his studies, and refused to adopt it.

Composition History

The Requiem is nonsectarian, drawing on diverse sources such as biblical texts, secular poetry, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Jewish liturgy.

Composition History

Rosner's Requiem was originally conceived as an opera based on Ingmar Bergman's film 'The Seventh Seal', but Bergman refused permission for the adaptation.

Recording & Production

Walter Simmons, the author of the booklet essay, was a close associate of Arnold Rosner for over forty years and is the dedicatee of this Requiem.

Composer Biography

Arnold Rosner (1945-2013) was an American composer who produced a large body of work across nearly every genre, including three operas and eight symphonies.

Compositional Technique

The first movement of Rosner's Requiem, 'Overture: The Seventh Seal', is taken verbatim from the opening scene of his aborted opera based on the film.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Rosner's musical language blended Renaissance and early Baroque polyphony with free triadicism, exotic modalities, and the lavish orchestration of late Romanticism.