Charles Villiers Stanford - Requiem (Adrian Leaper)

Information

Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford

CD1:

1. Requiem: Introit: Adagio
2. Requiem: Kyrie: Allegro tranquillo ed espressivo
3. Requiem: Gradual: Larghetto
4. Requiem: Sequence - Dies irae: Allegro moderato ma energico
5. Requiem: Offertorium: Allegro

CD2:

1. Requiem: Sanctus: Allegro non troppo
2. Requiem: Agnus Dei et Lux aeterna: Tempo di marcia funèbre
3. Excerpts from The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): Overture
4. Excerpts from The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): Ballet Music No. 1
5. Excerpts from The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): There's a Bower of Roses
6. Excerpts from The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): Ballet Music No. 2

Frances Lucey, soprano (Requiem)
Colette McGahon, mezzo-soprano (Requiem)
Peter Kerr, tenor (Requiem)
Nigel Leeson-Williams, bass (Requiem)

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, chorus master: Mark Duley
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Adrian Leaper, conductor (Requiem)

Virginia Kerr, soprano (The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan)
Colman Pearce, conductor (The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan)

Date: 1994/2004
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555201-02

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Review

A late-Victorian masterpiece that should find new recognition today

Glowingly welcomed in The Gramophone on its original issue, this first recording of a late-Victorian masterpiece gains the well-deserved chance of wider circulation on the popular Naxos label. The Requiem was written in 1896 in memory of Lord Leighton. It is scored for the usual forces of solo quartet, chorus and orchestra, and it strikes the familiar balance between grief and condolence, its manner essentially lyrical, its form determined by that of the Mass and by its well-defined musical climaxes. Yet the composer’s individuality is everywhere unobtrusively evident, as is the warmth of his feeling. If these things were indeed too unobtrusive to gain recognition in their own time and the largely unsympathetic century which followed, they should win it now. 

The performance is admirable, with good work by all four soloists and a special word of appreciation is due to the delightful soprano, Frances Lucey. The choir needs more presence in the recorded sound, which in general is none too sharply defined. The excerpts from The Veiled Prophet, another rarity, provide a well-chosen bonus. The omission from David J Brown’s valuable booklet-notes of his detailed survey of the Requiem itself may justify a search for any residual copy of the original Marco Polo issue before settling for this.

-- John Steane, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
BBC Music Magazine PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Nov04/Stanford_Requiem.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Stanford_Requiem.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Stanford-Requiem-Excerpts-Prophet-Khorassan/dp/B00030B9B6
http://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.555201-02&languageid=EN

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Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor. Some regarded Stanford, together with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, are responsible for a renaissance in music from the British Isles. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also Professor of Music at Cambridge. His students included Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and many more. His music was eclipsed in the 20th century by that of Edward Elgar as well as his former pupils.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Villiers_Stanford

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Adrian Leaper (born 1953) is an English conductor. Leaper studied horn and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and for eight year was co-principal horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (1994-2001) the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid (2001-2010). He has made many recordings for the Naxos Records label. He has conducted for all four major London orchestras, the Moscow, Vienna and Prague Symphony Orchestras, in addition to many other radio, philharmonic, and symphony orchestras around the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Leaper

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