MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Thierry LANCINO (b. 1954)
Requiem (2009) [72:09]
Heidi Grant Murphy (soprano); Nora Gubisch (mezzo-soprano); Stuart Skelton (tenor); Nicolas Courjal (bass); Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France/Eliahu Inbal
rec. live 7 & 8 January 2010, Salle Pleyel, Paris
NAXOS 8.572771 [72:09]

Experience Classicsonline



Thierry Lancino is a French composer who currently lives in the United States. His Requiem was the result of a joint commission from Radio France, the Koussevitsky Music Foundation and the French Ministry of Culture. This recording was made at the first performance, and given that successive days are indicated, the concert was perhaps followed by a patching session. There are a few audience noises, but nothing to disturb the listener, and there is no applause at the end. The recording is very fine, comfortably accommodating the vast forces whilst at the same time allowing for the intimacy required when those forces are sparingly employed. The performance of this monstrously difficult work is heroic and astonishingly fine.

Thierry Lancino’s website is highly professional, and the Requiem is accorded great prominence there. There is much information, and, remarkably, a pdf of the full score available for download. The score is huge, however, and following or studying it on screen is a frustrating affair. Press notices are quoted extensively, all positive.

Benjamin Britten’s inspired decision to insert non-liturgical texts into his War Requiem may or may not have been the first such venture, but many composers have followed his lead. Thierry Lancino has focussed on the phrase “Dies irae, dies illa, teste David cum Sibylla”. David prays for life beyond the grave, whereas the Sibyl, a pagan prophetess who has been granted eternal life but not eternal youth, longs for the death she cannot attain. The author of the excellent booklet notes, Ben Finane, might be accused of over-egging the pudding when he writes that “This explosive paradox has been laying in this verse for seven centuries without having been challenged”, but it is certainly this that gives Lancino’s Requiem its individual viewpoint. The text, in French, Latin and Greek, is drawn from the Mass for the Dead, as well as from other liturgical sources, with original material by Pascal Quignard.

Four soloists are used. The role of the Sibyl is played by a mezzo-soprano, and David by the tenor, as well as by the bass when David’s profile as a warrior is evoked. The soprano is Everyman. Most of the liturgical text is presented by the chorus.

The opening of the work – thirteen identical drum and bell strokes – is unpromising. You might not be too encouraged by the following passage either, in which the Sibyl introduces herself and describes her sorry state. The French text is difficult to discern, and since the vocal line is declamatory rather than melodic – of which more later – if one has no idea what she is on about then there isn’t really very much left. (The words, with translations, are available on the Naxos website, though not at the address indicated on the CD box.) The “Kyrie” follows, dramatic choral clusters – women’s voices in eight parts! – followed by calm diatonic chords to the words “Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine”. In the third section the two Davids present words from Psalm 18, and whilst the orchestral writing as well as the presence of the chorus later in the passage creates a powerful atmosphere, it seems perverse to employ solo singers only to have them intone so much of the text on, or obsessively around, single notes. The following “Dies irae” is violently rhythmic, with so much going on when the bass soloist joins in that he will make himself heard only with difficulty. This is highly exciting music, however, and the Sibyl’s return to remind us that she wants to die is, for this listener, unwelcome. Powerful, driven motor rhythms characterise the following “Mors stupebit”, and lead to massive choral and brass chords for “Rex tremendae majestatis”. These are interrupted by Everyman, demanding salvation; she then sings the following “Ingemisco” accompanied only by cellos. The writing for the solo soprano is more varied than hitherto, but there seems little reason to sing something rather than simply reciting it if the sung notes do not fuse with the text: that seems to me not to be the case here. Let me mention, in passing, an almost imperceptible groaning noise that occurs from time to time during the performance, audible in this passage where so little else is occurring. Other strange noises, deliberate and highly effective this time, introduce the “Confutatis”, the singers against a wind and brass-heavy orchestra. And pity the poor chorus when the orchestra gives so little help in finding the notes. They seem to succeed remarkably well, witness, no doubt to long and painful preparation under chorus masters Matthias Brauer and Sébastien Boin. The appearance of the tenor after this vivid music introduces a passage of genuine and striking beauty which continues into the “Lacrimosa”. An interesting and affecting view of the text, this, with tears that comfort rather than disturb the listener. The “Offertorium” is sung by the chorus, and as a one-time choral singer and now choral director myself, I do wonder how they coped, and how much pleasure they derived from it. Goodness knows how the men, singing in six parts, are meant to find their opening notes, and each voice chants the words thereafter to lots of held and repeated notes. My admiration for the choral trainers is magnified and underscored by the fact that I wouldn’t have wanted the job!

A long passage for the Sibyl, supported by the chorus, follows: dramatic and powerful, it doesn’t add much to what we already know of her. There are arresting sounds in plenty in the soprano/tenor/chorus “Sanctus”, with the percussion writing particularly colourful, contributing to the work’s prevailing metallic, rather pagan sound. The bells in the wordless vocalise that opens the following “Song of David” reminded this listener of the “Sanctus” from the War Requiem. You won’t go away humming the tune of this particular “song”, and nor will you do so after the “Agnus Dei”. Women’s voices begin this, later joined by men’s voices, and later still, in what must be one of the chorus masters’ scariest moments, by the orchestra. Full marks to them all, though, as they are very nearly in tune when the instruments enter. But now I must nail my colours firmly to the mast. In this passage, and in the closing “Dona eis requiem”, as well as elsewhere in this imposing, important and serious work, I can hear in the vocal writing hardly a single memorable or distinctive note.

William Hedley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.