Fauré: Requiem

This is one of those discs that it is rather hard to rate properly. It contains a decent but unexceptional performance of the familiar Requiem in its symphonic version, and while there is little that is obviously objectionable about the performances (and much that is commendable) it will hardly rank among the very best either. But then again, I suppose most people coming to this disc would not be attracted primarily by the Requiem, but by the rare, 22-minute cantata La Naissance de Venus, a mature work that, if it is not among the composer's most memorable, contains much fascinating music. Now, this is not the work's only recording (there is at least one conducted by Antony Walker on ABC and one under Bernhard Tétu on EMI), but it is at least rare enough that I have never heard it in any other version.

But let us take the Requiem first. Opinions concerning the various versions vary, of course, but at least the full orchestra and full chorus version has its qualities, and the performance here is helped by Chandos's fine, warm engineering (I see that those acquiring the SACD version are less unanimously positive about the sound; I don't know whether it reflects features particular to the SACD version or something else). The City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus sings well, the soloists are generally good, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra gives fine performances as well. Still, this is a performance generally realizes the calm and radiantly beautiful more than reflective and haunting, and sometimes one feels that a little more textural variety would not have gone amiss. It is probably a result of the most controversial feature of the performance: Tortelier's tempo choices, which are very much on the (very) slow side, especially in the Kyrie, and I can easily imagine that they won't be to everyone's liking (I admit to finding the performance verging dangerously close to the boring on occasions).

La Naissance de Venus is a beautiful work, however. Maybe the themes are slightly less distinguished than those of the Requiem, and perhaps the music is gorgeous rather than rapturous, but the work is sufficiently variegated, imaginative and powerful for its neglect to be a little surprising - it was written in 1895 and is as such hardly an early work either. The text, which is silly, may be part of the reason, I suppose. In any case, it opens with a marvelously beautiful pastoral introduction and moves through some strikingly beautiful lyrical music, inventive harmonies and textures, and scenes of energetic splendor, always superbly scored and formally finely judged. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is a little lacking in variety, or perhaps it is the performances that do not fully bring out the subtle shifts of atmosphere.

As couplings we get a fine performance of the beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine and a similarly effective version of the lovely Pavane, here in its version for chorus and orchestra. In sum, then, while this may not rank with the very best as a performance of the Requiem it does provide a rare chance to hear La Naissance de Venus, and may as such be an opportunity that fans of the composer cannot afford to lose. Hence the difficulty in rating the disc as a whole - it should definitely reflect the importance of including Venus, but also be a warning to those who are only seeking a version of the Requiem to live with.