42. Faure Requiem - in full.

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As we come to the end of Lent in the Christian calendar, I'm going to take a slightly different approach this week and next and dedicate the next two podcasts to just two pieces. The Requiem by Gabriel Fodder this week and the Bachelor Matthew Pattern next. But I will release the pattern on Good Friday after normal Monday. Each piece deserves to be listened to on its own without the interruption of other music. And both are very different approaches to the theme of death. Let me take me off that you do not have to be a believer of any kind to appreciate these masterpieces, even if it might help. Both will be due in different ways, as will become clear. But we've all experienced or witnessed death at close hand, especially over the last couple of years. And I can think of no better music to help in some way personal to us each to come to terms with it, whether it be a recent demise or one a while ago, or indeed if we are confronting it right now. So I hope you might stay with me to hear for yourself the extraordinary comfort effect which music and these works in particular can bring in our darkest hours. Because as an organist, he was bored with plotting out the same old dirty stuff week after week. Apart from the notable exception of brands, the Requiem had traditionally been set to music which at times can be quite threatening in anticipation of a day of judgment. Fodd is simple and at times only careful music has caused it to be labelled lightly by some criticism compounded by its relatively short length, just 35 minutes or even the precedence chart of the time that its competition dismissed it as a sort of unnecessary novelty. In its seven parts, there's only really one dark movement, which in itself doesn't last very long. The aim beautifully achieved is to offer solids and instantly appealing melodies applied to words which are of an intriguing nature. In short, it's all about a request for liberation from eternal death. The recording I've chosen today is by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, with a new phenomenon orchestra conducted by the later David Wilcox. As a young man arriving on the beaches of Normandy, he saw dead bodies for the first time on a horrific stage of slaughter, watching his commanding officer being shot in front of him, and then is immediately promoted second in command just minutes later. In all that bloody mayhem, the fore requiem was apparently in his head. So let's open with the first two passages of the requiem eternum, the eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, with the traditional killer later, Lord have mercy, followed by the offer tree, where we hear the words ne cadant in obscurum, that they may not fall into darkness. Then pick it up by the baritone, here sung by John Carol Case, with the words Fac eas Domine, make them Lord, transcend from death to life. In Verdi's account, for example, it opens with a blade of brass, and the whole thing seems to be finished in a matter of moments. Again, Fodio takes a different approach, with music which is altogether more dreamy, with only this brief triumphal phase in the middle to affert the jubilation of Hosanna in Excel before returning to the calm. From there, we move to the PAU too, it is done by the terrible Robert Filter, a prayer to good Jesus to grant them rest, and a passage which has come to be a favorite of many. And then to the annual day, the Lamb of God, where once again in this fresh opening, Foreign's music departs from the norm, which was to have a slightly dole, minor key approach. That you'll notice doesn't come until a little bit later, after which it brings us back to the original theme right at the beginning of the work. So here they are the sanctus, the PAZU, and the Anus Dae, all sung by the King's College Cambridge Choir under Sir David Wilcox. We now come to the Libra May, a plea to be freed from everlasting death. This part was actually written as a separate Peter some ten years before and was not even included on the first performance. This is the only dark passage of the record which I mentioned at the beginning. But it is still closed with a gorgeous melody. But Foddo doesn't want to dwell on that too much. Foddo was not a devout Christian, so I have no idea if that irregular beat goes beyond the musical device alone. But it certainly fits in well with his aim to focus on everlasting life. In Paladism, they do count Angeli. May angels lead you to paradise is a thoroughly fitting closer to the picture. That this may not be the end, but just possibly a new beginning. As I said when you start it, it doesn't really matter whether you believe in an afterlife or not. But there is a fairwell to loved ones, which I would prefer to do so with some encouragement effects, and even a little bit of a quicker repeat that would be open. This is a record content. I find it as long as so many people dismiss it. That's because those of other composers are so much longer. It was a real penance to have to listen to it. Well, if this is the first time you heard it before, I do hope that's not been your experience. This recording with King's College of Cambridge and David Wilcox and the Philomena is more than 50 years old and has stood the test of time. It remains my favorite version.

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