Composer: John Rutter
Performer: Polyphony, Rosa Mannion
Orchestra: Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Conductor: Stephen Layton
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA66947
Release: 1997
Size: 207 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Requiem
01. I. Requiem aeternam
02. II. Out of the deep
03. III. Pie Jesu
04. IV. Sanctus
05. V. Agnus Dei
06. VI. The Lord is my shepherd
07. VII. Lux aeterna
08. Hymn to the Creator of Light
09. God be in my head
10. A Gaelic blessing
Psalmfest
11. V. Cantate Domino
12. Open Thou Mine Eyes
13. A prayer of Saint Patrick
14. A choral fanfare
Birthday Madrigals
15. II. Draw on, sweet night
16. IV. My true love hath my heart
17. The Lord bless you and keep you
John Rutter composed his Requiem in 1985. The work follows the precedents of Brahms and Faure in using carefully selected texts in place of much of the standard Missa Pro defunctis sequence. The resulting composition has an arch-like formal structure within which is contained some of Rutter’s most haunting (and, in the case of The Lord is my shepherd, well known) choral music to date. Also included are two items from the Birthday Madrigals collection composed in honour of the jazz pianist George Shearing, and eight further sacred works. The double-choir Hymn to the Creator of Light is a wonderful composition, far removed from the romantic style with which Rutter has sometimes been associated; the work here receives its first recording. The Lord bless you and keep you makes a most felicitous ending to the programmeone of those tunes that just will not leave your head.