Requiem

Mozart à Portuguesa

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mozart à Portuguesa
Mozart’s Requiem (Eborense version)
Americantiga Ensemble, Ricardo Bernardes
São Roque, Lisbon. 6 November 2020 & online

Davide Perez (1711-78) Subvenite sancti dei; Trio in G minor
José Joaquim dos Santos (1747-1801)  Lamentação de Quinta-Feira Santa
Frei Joan de Santa Cruz (1542-1591) Noche oscura
Mozart Requiem (Eborense version)

An interesting live-streamed concert from Portugal caught my eye and ear, with the help of a friend who managed to get there and back to perform just before the UK lockdown. It included a performance of Mozart’s Requiem in an early 19th-century arrangement by composers of Évora Cathedral, alongside pieces by composers of the Lisbon Court such as David Perez and José Joaquim dos Santos. The manuscript of the arrangement is in the archives in Évora, hence the name of the “Eborense version”. The concert was performed live by the Americantiga Ensemble during the 22nd Music Season in São Roque in the São Roque Church, Lisbon, and is available to view via the link below.

Continue reading →

Requiem: Music for Royal Spanish Funerals

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Requiem
Musiques pour les funérailles royales Espagnoles
La Maîtrise de Toulouse, Les Sacqueboutiers, Mark Opstad
Regent REGCD551. 61’34

In a search for a collaborative musical partnership, the Toulouse-based children’s choir La Maîtrise de Toulouse and early brass ensemble Les Sacqueboutiers settled on Victoria’s Requiem as a way of combining the Spanish Renaissance traditions of the niños cantorcicos children’s choirs and the ministries, or Cathedral wind players. It is the focus of this recording of music for a Royal Spanish funeral. combined with other related pieces, some recorded for the first time. Continue reading →

Requiem masses for murdered royalty

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Requiem masses for murdered royalty
Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet
Barbican. 25 January 2019

Plantade Requiem in D minor, in memory of Marie-Antoinette
Berlioz Tristia
Cherubini Requiem in C minor, in memory of Louis XVI

 

Le Concert Spirituel and their founder-director Hervé Niquet brought the programme of their 2017 recording of the Plantade and Cherubini Requiems to The Barbican, together with Berlioz’s rarely performed Tristia, a sequence of three ‘sad pieces’ published in 1852 from three short pieces composed in 1831, 1842, and 1844. An unusual, but interesting programme with music that, perhaps because of the nature of the pieces, was compelling, but never really reached the heights of musical perfection. Cherubini’s Requiem was the first to be performed, in 1817, shortly after the restoration of the monarchy and in memory of Louis XVI. It was followed in 1823 by Plantade’s Messe des morts on the 30th anniversary of the death of Marie-Antoinette. Plantade knew Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, and there are elements of the earlier musical style of their court in his Requiem together with the style of the music of the Revolution. As with the Cherubini, there are no solo voices. Both works are intended for liturgical performance. Continue reading →

SJSS: Holy Week Festival

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

Siglo de Oro & New London Singers
St John’s, Smith Square: Holy Week Festival. 15 April 2017

WP_20170415_12_49_34_Pro (2).jpgThe St John’s, Smith Square Holy Week Festival (also reviewed here and here) concluded with a vocal workshop and lunchtime concert with Siglo de Oro and an evening concert from the New London Singers. The morning workshop was led by Patrick Allies, director of Siglo de Oro, and focussed on Bach’s motet Jesu meine freude, giving useful insights into the structure, text and musical contents of this most complex piece. Siglo de Oro’s lunchtime concert sandwiched this piece between two shorter meditative pieces by Purcell Hear my Prayer, and Remember not, Lord, our offences, concluding with Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater a 10.  Continue reading →

Durante: Requiem

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

Francesco Durante: Requiem in C minor, Organ Concerto in B flat
Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Soloists from The Sixteen, Oxford Baroque
Stephen Darlington, Clive Driskill-Smith
Coro COR16147. 63’27

Durante: Requiem in C, Organ Concerto in B flat.

Better known as a teacher (of the likes of Pergolasi, Jommelli, and Piccini), the compositions of Francesco Durante (1684-1755) have been rather overlooked since his death. Born near Naples, he studied with A. Scarlatti and (possibly) Pasquini and spent a brief time in Rome before returning to Naples where he became musical director of a number of conservatories; by that time extending their original 16th century remit from the care of orphans to include specialist teaching for paying music students. Although some commentators complimented Durante on his compositions, they tended to focus on his “correct writing” and his facility with harmony and counterpoint, factors which go to make this Requiem so fascinating.

The Requiem in C minor is thought to have been first performed in S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli in Rome in 1746, although there is some doubt Continue reading →