Requiem, which one you like and why

But I still had a feeling that there was something else in the Luchesi Requiem that I was familiar with. Then the tune came to my mind - bingo! - Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, the first of Gluck's innovative operas. This opera made quite a buzz at its time - and it premiered 9 years before Luchesi's Requiem. So, seems like Gluck was an influence on Luchesi, but otherwise what a pioneering composer the latter is. Here is Gluck's Orfeo area sung by an incomparable Kazakh countertenor Erik Kurmangaliev:
Gluck Orfeo Kurmangaliev
 
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I have heard the Mozart, Brahms and Faure live. All by amateur groups. The Faure was an outstanding performance in a parish church with a small university choir (I think it was Sheffield) and organ. The choir's first entry made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - it was unforgettable!
 
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Alfred Schnittke
Schnittke.jpg

I just cannot make enough praise for this work. Though modern (1975), it is immediately accessible - on the first listen. It is divinely beautiful and evokes unbelievably powerful feelings. This particular recording is my favorite - it has everything an audiophile wants - holographic 3d surround sound, dynamic range, natural instrument and voice sonorities - if you listen through high quality headphones. I have a CD, but quobuz and iTunes may have it in hi-rez, I don't know.
Schnittke Requiem Kaljuste
 
Josef (Osip) Kozlovsky
Well ahead of its time, this dramatic and grandiose Requiem is undeservedly neglected. Written in 1798, it shows influence of Mozart and Gossec; it pre-dates the XIX century's Cherubini, Berlioz, and Verdi. It sounds as if it was composed in mid-XIX century.

Kozlovsky, who is of Polish (some historians say Belorussian) descent, served as court composer from Catherine the Great to Nicholas I and was succeeded in this role by Domenico Cimarosa. The Requiem was commissioned by the last Polish king Stanislaw Poniatowski and was also performed at the funerary services for Alexander I.

There is only one recording of the piece: 1988 Melodiya conducted by Vladimir Yesipov. Of all requiem recordings by different composers on YouTube, this one has most views, likes, and comments.
Kozlovsky Requiem Yesipov
 
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The second is RINO - requiem in name only. It is one-piece work set to a striking verse of German XIX century poet Friedrich Hebbel. English translation:

Soul, forget them not! Forget not the dead!

See, they hover around you
Shuddering, forsaken,
And in the holy ardor
Which love rouses in the poor,
They breathe once more and take on warmth
And enjoy for one last time
Their fading life.

And if, growing cold,
You close yourself to them, they stiffen
To the very depths of their being.
The storm of night then seizes them
Which they, huddled together,
Defied in the womb of love,
And it pursues them tempestuously
Through the endless desert wastes,
Where life no longer exists, only the struggle
Of unleashed forces
Struggling for renewed being!

The piece was composed in 1915, one year into the WWI and one year before Reger's death. The apocalyptic scale of the war had been fully realized by that time. The music is so full of grief and angst.
Reger Requiem Kleive
 
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Finally a chance to listen to this recording. The "Tuba Mirum" -- "full orchestra and four additional brass orchestras".

See the attached paragraph and photo from the book accompanying the LP's -- they took the seats out of Boston Symphony Hall for the principal orchestra, put the chorus on the stage and situated the additional brass orchestras around the hall.
 

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