Gounod: Requiem Mass & Messe Chorale in G minor

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

[The Requiem] is a gem of a piece, providing the stylistic link between the earlier Faure setting and successors such as Durufle and Desenclos. The recording (made in a converted granary in the... — Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 More…

Release Date: 25th Apr 2011
Catalogue No: MIR129
Label: Mirare
Length: 62 minutes

Gounod: Messe de Requiem en Ut Majeur, pour 4 solistes, choeur mixte et orchestre

Work length36:23

$6.60

$8.25

$9.60

I. Introït & Kyrie

Track length6:10

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

II. Dies Irae

Track length15:12

$1.60

$2.00

$2.35

III. Sanctus

Track length0:46

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

IV. Benedictus

Track length4:12

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

V. Pie Jesu

Track length3:43

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VI. Agnus Dei

Track length6:20

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Gounod: Messe Chorale en Sol Mineur, avec orgue d’accompagnement et grand orgue

Work length26:35

$7.20

$9.00

$10.45

I. Introït

Track length1:15

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

II. Kyrie

Track length3:26

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

III. Gloria

Track length5:30

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

IV. Credo

Track length7:38

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

V. Sanctus

Track length1:59

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VI. Benedictus

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VII. Agnus Dei

Track length4:33

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Charles Gounod, wrote the Requiem, one of his finest pieces, between 1889 and Palm Sunday 1891, the date he added 'fin' to the foot of his manuscript. It is likely he continued to revise the work until 21 February 1893, the day he sent the score to the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. According to his friend and student Henri Busser, just three days before his death, Gounod was still rivetted: "...on 15 October 1893, he was still playing passages of "his" Requiem at the piano when he had a fit of apoplexy. Though out of breath, he still tried to continue singing the duet from the Benedictus with his daughter, then carefully put the manuscript away...In the afternoon he was felled by a stroke and lost consciousness. He never emerged from the ensuing coma, and died in the small hours of 18 October..." What is most impressive about this magnificient composition (which, like Fauré's Requiem, ignores the terrors of the final judgement and the horrors of death, this is the path to eternal light which Gounod aspired to follow during his waning years. The "Dies Irae" does not begin with a stormy eruption typical of the romantic but is marked by a haunting, rhythmic, mysterious motive. The most terrifying verses about horror, death and judgement are set to the work's most beautiful passages, serene, celestial, as if the heavens were opening: the "Recordare", sung by a soprano and taken up by the chorus.

Reviews

August 2011

[The Requiem] is a gem of a piece, providing the stylistic link between the earlier Faure setting and successors such as Durufle and Desenclos. The recording (made in a converted granary in the Limousin) is superb and this benchmark performance exemplary. Do try.

12th May 2011

The Requiem supports the prevalent view that religion and sensuousness were closely linked in Gounod's psyche, though it's also music of heart-on-sleeve directness...conductor Michel Corboz rejects the original orchestration in favour of a version for harp, string quintet and organ...Both works sound ravishing as sung by the Ensemble Vocal Lausanne. There's beautiful solo work in the Requiem, too, above all from tenor Christophe Einhorn.

12th May 2011

In its emphasis on a consoling vision of death it looks forward to Fauré’s rather more famous requiem. Corboz and the Lausanne forces sweetly convey both the serenity and the subdued anguish underlying it.

Gounod: Requiem Mass & Messe Chorale in G minor

Downloads

Contents

Download queue