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Top 5 Requiems?

125K views 204 replies 133 participants last post by  HenryPenfold 
#1 ·
I know that there are hundreds out there, unfortunately I know of very little so my list will probably be generic. I would still like to see some good requiems that I dont know yet.

1. Mozart
2. Brahms
3. Verdi
4. Dvorak
5. Berlioz
 
#89 · (Edited)
Just when I thought I couldn't like you any more than I already do Lenfer, I see Brahms is your top Requiem :). Mine too.

1) Brahms
2) Faure
3) Durufle
4) Mozart
5) Dvorak
I love Brahms childhood memories. I'm ashamed to say I haven't heard the Duruflé's requiem :eek: I must make a point to listen to it over the weekend. Your not too bad yourself Sonata. :kiss::cheers:
 
#90 ·
Have you heard the piano four-hands version of the Brahms? Not quite as good as the original, but I love it too. Seraphic Fire has a recording of it. I love his violin sonatas, clarinet trio, and 2nd piano concerto as well.

The Durufle is very serene, similar in some ways to Faure's
 
#97 ·
It is Opus 148, and it exists in two forms: one with orchestral accompaniment, and one with organ accompaniment. It is an excellent work, a kind of begging for repose.

He also wrote a Mass in C Minor, Opus 147, which is also excellent. It too exists in both forms.

Some have simply branded them among the "uninspired" works of Schumann's mental degeneration. However, that assumption I have found without substance, as both works are masterful.
 
#104 ·
Schumann's requiem ANd Mass are great works; some people are i think too scared of psychological illness to let themselves appreciate them; not that they are not great works anyway-they are; but i have a gut feeling SOME people, not all, are frightened by the slightly fragmentary nature of this music, as Schumann fell apart
Steve
 
G
#105 ·
Schumann's requiem ANd Mass are great works; some people are i think too scared of psychological illness to let themselves appreciate them; not that they are not great works anyway-they are; but i have a gut feeling SOME people, not all, are frightened by the slightly fragmentary nature of this music, as Schumann fell apart
Steve
I don't even know what that means. Are you saying there is some risk of becoming mentally ill from listening to these?
 
#106 ·
As someone who has sung the choral parts of all my choices, I'll keep them in alphabetical order, since I would not presume to rank the greatness of these works:

Brahms
Durufle
Faure
Mozart
Verdi

I'm not sure I would describe Verdi as an atheist, though he apparently did not practice Catholicism for much of his life. That may have had something to do with people's disapproval of his living with Giuseppina Strepponi for a number of years before he married her. (She was for a time an opera singer, and sang the role of Abigaille in the premiere of Nabucco. Singing the fiendishly difficult music of this part too often contributed to her early vocal decline and shortened her career.)
I never had understood why he didn't marry her sooner, as he was a widower whose children were also dead and she had never married (she had several illegitimate children), so in theory there should have been no barrier to his doing so.

Verdi's Requiem follows the liturgical text more closely than does Brahms, which is a combination of the liturgical texts and Biblical texts. Nonetheless, both Mozart's and Verdi's Requiems are quasi-operatic in their vocal requirements, while Durufle's is more closely rooted in plainchant, and Faure specifically asked for voices which were more lyrical and less "operatic" sounding for his soloists. As different as they are, all are beautiful works which repay listening and re-listening.
 
#109 ·
Fauré, absolutely (I know of three versions, maybe my preferred is by Herreweghe on Harmonia Mundi).

Duruflé's is certainly interesting, although for a 1947 composition, it doesn't sound radical at all and that is perhaps why it is often compared with Fauré's (but I beg to differ, they are quite different).

I prefer more intimate Requiem works personally, as opposed to the larger, more pompous 19th century works (Brahms, Verdi, Berlioz, Dvorak... ugh... but that's just me :)).
 
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