Materna Requiem (Requiem For My Mother)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Kantos Chamber Choir, Clark Rundell, Hannah Dienes-Williams (soprano), Louise Alder (soprano), Dave Hinitt (organ), Trystan (tenor), Jonathan Aasgaard (cello), Thelma Handy (violin), Edward Hyde (treble), Trystan Griffiths (tenor). Recorded: 2018-01-26, Recording Venue: The Friary, Liverpool
This requiem contains:
01. Introit (4:10)
02. Kyrie (4:02)
03. Pie Jesu (3:54)
04. Lacrimosa (8:52)
05. Agnus Dei (2:22)
06. Paradisum Interlude (2:37)
07. Ave Maria (4:33)
08. Dies Irae & Requiem Variations (8:17)
09. Libera Me (3:47)
10. In Paradisum: If I Should Go (2:41)
♫ 01. Introit
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 02. Kyrie
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 03. Pie Jesu
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 04. Lacrimosa
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 05. Agnus Dei
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 06. Paradisum Interlude
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 07. Ave Maria
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 08. Dies Irae & Requiem Variations
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 09. Libera Me
© Decca Records 483 4076
♫ 10. In Paradisum: If I Should Go
© Decca Records 483 4076
The young British composer Rebecca Dale has emerged from a career in film music into major stardom. She is among the few composers signed to major labels under their own names, and the first such woman on Decca's roster. In the main work, Requiem for My Mother (or, as she has it in the interior material, Materna Requiem), Dale recalls her own mother, who died of breast cancer in 2010, but also mothers in general, and the notes provide a reasonably detectable narrative for each movement. The Kyrie, for instance, is said to represent the bargaining stage families experience after a cancer diagnosis. The strength of her music is that it at times leaves questions unanswered. Dale may recall John Rutter in her orientation toward poetry; she combines it with the Latin requiem mass text in the Requiem for My Mother and a shorter work, When Music Sounds, consists entirely of choral settings of poetry, some of it Dale's own. But her style is closer to that of Karl Jenkins than Rutter: it is broad and grand. The field is wide open for another composer working in this general crossover idiom, but Dale's music may appeal beyond the usual British crossover outlets. You couldn't say they get top billing, but the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kantos Chamber Choir under Clark Rundell approach their tasks with both enthusiasm and precision.