A short while ago, NHK’s Album of Classical Masterpieces featured three requiems.
Verdi, Mozart, and Fauré.
Every one of them is a masterpiece.
In Verdi’s, I love the way it ends almost in a murmur of “Libera me”; it gives me chills. I have performed it myself, too. (It was an amateur orchestra, but the concertmaster was a concertmaster from Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the oboist was brought in from Paris, and all the soloists except the mezzo-soprano were also invited from elsewhere. The mezzo happened to live in Nairobi and, if I remember correctly, was fairly well known.)
Mozart goes without saying.
Fauré’s was the first requiem I ever heard. I listened to Michel Corboz’s Erato recording. This is the kind of music people mean when they say their spirit has been cleansed.
Hmm. Perhaps Fauré had the deepest faith? That is how it feels.
Listening to music like this makes me want to reflect on myself anew.
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