Looking for good version of Faure's Requiem

Personally I love Herreweghe's account on Harmonia Mundi - excellent recording quality as usual, great choir and featuring [is that good english ?] the conductor's typical (and rare) mix of accuracy, involvement and emotion. It has to be said that Herreweghe plays the early 1893 version which had a very thin orchestration.

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Basically,she is complaning that it lacks a certain "emotional" or "involving" quality

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Yeah, but what the **** is "emotional" and "involving" ? Some are in heaven when they hear 50/60's pachidermic interpretations, especially of baroque music. This is obviously not the case with Herreweghe, and I admit it took me some time to like the recording - but it will be a long-lasting love.

If your girlfriend prefers something more flashy, she could try it with Ansermet on Decca - a 60's recording, but bear in mind that the Decca guys were real geniuses in the mixing room ! The sound quality could well be much better than the overhyped digital recordings of today. And of course Ansermet wasn't actually a tourist in the domain of French music.

And in general, I found that cheap labels were very much a hit-and-miss affair - these are the playground of some young brilliant musicians no-one wants to risk a penny on, but most soloists are the ones which are just not good enough for bigger labels. For more information, search for Todd Arola's comments ...

Oh, and don't forget that Fauré's Requiem cannot be considered a very easy work to listen to.

Cheese

[This message was edited by Cheese on TUESDAY 02 July 2002 at 19:20.]

Everytime I buy something on Naxos this has been my experience. So I wouldn't buy any more, so maybe I'm missing some good stuff.

Paul

Naxos maybe has a few interesting artists in rarely visited corners of the repertoire the big guys won't touch. Other than that it's crap. Why get the poor man's Bruckner or Tchaikovsky?

Good recent Fauré Requiems are indeed the Herreweghe and the Gardiner.

Just get the Herreweghe and make her a happy girl.

Incidentally, I'd say the Fauré isn't too complicated stuff. Basically it's a requiem without anyone dying. It's more like: gee this could happen to you.

Herman

Chris,

The one conducted by Jean Fournier with the Rotterdam philharmonic is very involving,altough it's quite old (1975).One of the first great performances of famous dutch soprano Elly Ameling.It's on the Phillips label from the silver-line series.

Rob.

Chris,

The one conducted by Jean Fournier with the Rotterdam philharmonic is very involving,altough it's quite old (1975).One of the first great performances of famous dutch soprano Elly Ameling.It's on the Phillips label from the silver-line series.

Rob.

Another vote for the Herreweghe. It's the one I went for in the end.

But if Karen equates emotion with a "bigger" sound, then this one (as Cheese mentioned) is his early "stripped down" version. For me the textures and emotion come through much better this way, but may be a bit of a shock to someone otherwise used to the later, "richer" versions.

I'll vote for the Herreweghe as well. But he's done two recordings. One of the fully orchestrated late version & the other is the earlier sparser one. (Nice & vague description) Both are excellent.

Alternatively you could try Matthew Best & the Corydon Singers on Hyperion which gets you the Duruffle Requiem as well. Beautiful coupling, excellent sound.

As for poor old Naxos, you have to be very careful. They are cheap and this showed on the early recordings. Now they are a good source of unexplored repetoire & for up & coming young artists. Sometimes you get something special but avoid the early recordings.

Tom
Enjoying it all

The Herreweghe it is then ! (seems almost unanimous in approval)

Must admit,I do like the thought of comparing the contrasting musical accounts,(sparse & fully orchestrated ).

Regards

Chris

Herreweghe is addictive - once you've tasted it you'll need this and that and this and that. His last Bach St.-Matthew Passion for instance.

Sorry but I had to express it.

Cheese

But the joy of Herreweghe is that Harmonia Mundi & Virgin keep releasing his work at budget price, especially his excellent Bach Cantatas.

Tom
Enjoying it all

and the Mozart masses, too