Requiem

Infused with Gregorian chant and heady, Impressionistic harmonies, Parisian organist Maurice Duruflé’s 1947 Requiem follows in the same contemplative, comforting footsteps of Fauré’s own Requiem, first performed almost 60 years earlier. Like Fauré, Duruflé chooses his biblical texts carefully, omitting the traditional, fiery Dies Irae and inserting the In Paradisum. The result is a work of noble restraint and exquisite beauty, yet it still packs a punch with its brief moments of explosive drama, particularly at the climax of the brooding Libera Me. Duruflé is at his heavenly, ethereal best, however, in the cascading Sanctus, the perfectly pitched serenity of the Agnus Dei and in the intimate Pie Jesu, whose scoring for mezzo-soprano and cello solo proves a masterstroke. Three versions of the Requiem exist: the original 1947 scoring for choir, full orchestra and organ was followed a year later by an edition for choir and organ, and, in 1961, a version for choir, organ and chamber orchestra.