Later in his life Faure wrote about his renowned Requiem in D Minor: 'Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest'.
The 42-year-old Gabriel Faure composed his greatest and best-known sacred work, the Requiem, Op. 48, in 1887, the year his mother died, and two years after the death of his father. Although he never invoked those circumstances, one could hardly suppose that the proximity of the two events were without significance.
The latest redaction of the score dates from 1900 (with corrections made in 19).
The new approach to the Requiem tradition is evidenced by the opening Introit from the Kyrie-- scored for chamber forces, with a calm, contemplative chorus, without a shadow of drama. The ensuing Offertory, originally conceived for solo voices and only using the choir in later versions (from the choral 'Domine Jesu Christe' to the baritone 'Hostias'), with its opening canon consolidates the mood of reflection, which is retained in the polyphonic choral Sanctus, based on a simple three-note melody. A climax of sorts is provided by what is perhaps the most famous episode in the work: the soprano 'Pie Jesu'.
Close analysis of the form of this work betrays startling similarities to Johannes Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem.
Johannes Brahms's Begrabnisgesang [Burial song], Op.13 is the first work in which the composer combined a choir with instruments: twelve winds and timpani. It is highly likely that the idea for this composition is linked to the development of his "Ein deutsches Requiem", already maturing at this time, although not fully realised until ten years later. Such is suggested by the forces, the subject matter and also the concept for a grand oratorio making use of what Brahms considered to be the most valuable ideas from his earlier works. The direct impulse for the composing of this youthful masterwork was no doubt the recent death (in 1856) of Brahms's master and friend Robert Schumann.
This recording is released as part of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute's "Concerts Frozen in Time" series (Muzyka zatrzymana w czasie) and was recorded live at the 17th International Music Festival 'Chopin and his Europe' at the 'Teatr Wielki' Polish National Opera in Warsaw, Moniuszko Auditorium, 31st August 2021.
