Faure: Requiem; Orchestral works
Neville Marriner
Label
Decca
Catalogue No.
4824963
Barcode
00028948249633
Format
1-CD
About

Fluent and luminously textured accounts of Fauré’s major choral and orchestral music, compiled on CD for the first time.

After the death of Sir Neville Marriner in October 2016 at the age of 91, Eloquence pays tribute to the conductor’s work on record with a Requiem – and the most gently consoling Requiem of them all – by Fauré. For this Philips recording in 1993, Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields were joined by a distinguished pair of soloists, baritone Thomas Allen and the soprano Sylvia McNair who were critically praised at the time for their authoritative and sensitive contributions to a performance that achieves tenderness without sentimentality.

The breadth of Marriner’s repertoire and his extraordinary, almost unrivalled industry in the studio is amply demonstrated by the November 1982 issue of Gramophone which contains reviews of no fewer than four new recordings by the conductor – and with three separate orchestras. As well as cello concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, Offenbach overtures with the Philharmonia and Handel organ concertos with the Academy, an Argo LP of Fauré’s orchestral music – reissued complete here – was welcomed in terms which have become familiar to record-buyers down the years: for the conductor’s unobtrusive good taste, for the polish of the Academy players, highlighted by the exquisite solo contribution to the Fantaisie of the orchestra’s long-standing principal flute, William Bennett and for the harmoniously balanced Argo recording in the London church of St John’s, Smith Square.

TRACK LISTING / ARTISTS

GABRIEL FAURÉ
Requiem, Op. 48

Sylvia McNair, soprano
Thomas Allen, baritone
Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus
John Birch, organ
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Neville Marriner

Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80: Suite
Pavane, Op. 50
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus

Fantaisie, Op. 79 (orch. Louis Aubert)
William Bennett, flute

Masques et Bergamasques: Suite

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Neville Marriner

Track previews
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80: No. 1, Prélude. Quasi adagio
Masques et Bergamasques Suite, Op. 112: IV. Pastorale
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: VI. Libera me
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: V. Agnus Dei
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: IV. Pie Jesu
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: III. Sanctus
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: II. Offertorium. Domine Jesu Christe
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: I. Introitus. Requiem aeternam - Kyrie
Masques et Bergamasques Suite, Op. 112: II. Gavotte
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80: No. 2, Fileuse. Andantino quasi allegretto
Masques et Bergamasques Suite, Op. 112: II. Menuet
Masques et Bergamasques Suite, Op. 112: I. Ouverture
Fantaisie, Op. 79 (Orch. by Louis Aubert)
Pavane in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 50
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80: No. 4, La mort de Mélisande. Molto adagio
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80: No. 3, Sicilienne. Allegro molto moderato
Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: VII. In Paradisum
Recording information

Recording Producers: Martha de Francisco (Requiem); Chris Hazell (Pelléas et Mélisande, Pavane, Fantaisie, Masques et Bergamasques)
Balance Engineers: Erdo Groot (Requiem); Stanley Goodall (Pelléas et Mélisande, Pavane, Fantaisie, Masques et Bergamasques)
Recording Locations: St. John’s, Smith Square, London, UK, January 1993 (Requiem); St. Barnabas, North Finchley, London, UK, 12–13 June 1981 (Pelléas et Mélisande, Pavane, Fantaisie, Masques et Bergamasques)
Remastering Engineer: Chris Bernauer
Eloquence Series Producer: Cyrus Meher-Homji

Reviews

‘Pelléas et Mélisande is Fauré’s finest set of incidental music, and Marriner catches very well its supple movement, its rise and fall of intensity. His performance of Masques et Bergamasques has similar virtues.’ Gramophone

‘Marriner and his players have an affectionate approach, with plenty of sensitivity in their shading and no lack of strength either, but all is accomplished at a tempo that has nothing over-insistent or pretentious about it.’ Gramophone