Customer Reviews

Campra - Requiem ~ Miserere / Visse, Ragon, Harvey; Malgoire

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Excellent stereo sound is the hallmark of this CD that my CD-player instantly recognised as HDCD-encoded although there are no indications of this in the booklet. André Campra (1660 - 1744) is probably better known for his stage works, written during the fruitful middle period of his life, but he was also a gifted composer of sacred music, especially in his youth and in his latter years, and Jean-Claude Malgoire has here recorded his superb Requiem together with a motet on Psalm 50 (51), the 'Miserere'. The Requiem demands, according to the booklet, four soloists: haut-contre, taille, basse-taille and bass; the recording itself, however, only has three soloists: Dominique Visse, whose androgynous high tenor to me seems more suitable for the comic opera than for serious church music, tenor Gilles Ragon and an excellent Peter Harvey, baritone. The choral forces used here are most unusual: Two female first sopranos, one female second soprano, four male hautes-contre, five tailles (tenors) and four basses plus no less than 15 boy trebles who by sheer weight of numbers tend to dominate the scene. The orchestra (13 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses, two each of flute, oboe and bassoon, an organ and a theorbo) has a mainly supportive role and there are practically no purely instrumental passages. In the Miserere there are some treble solo passages ('Asperges me hyssopo'), and while some listeners will enjoy the angelic clarity of the children's voices, the old problem of young children's lack of musical maturity does raise its head (this is why Philippe Herreweghe, for example, uses female sopranos, even when historical authenticity would demand boy trebles). Each of the 17 tracks of the CD has its special highlights, and the whole is most entertaining listening, even if an occasional doubt might cross one's mind as to whether Malgoire has not possibly exalted individual trees at the expense of the whole wood.

The Requiem and the Miserere are two somehow neglected masterpieces of the late French Baroque.
They are full of elegance and restrained lightness (though they are quite complex, but not in the over-emphasised style), that one just do'nt find in the German or even the Italian Baroque.
The Requiem is not the schmaltzy Requiem of Mozart or the bombastic Requiem of Verdi - no, this is a Requiem of a true noble spirit, and the closest example is that by Faure.
The performances here are, simply put, the best you'll find.
Malgoire use a boy's choir and the efect of it in the Miserere is enchanting.
In track 11 (Asperges me) a boy is singing the soprano aria, and it so full of beauty, tenderness, and delicate fragility, that i simply do'nt understand why in the other recordings of this music they insist on female soprano.
The Choir and the orchestra are excellent,
and the soloists - Visse, Ragon, Harvey - are first-class musicians and singers.

A superb recording, with a huge sound stage.

When it comes to classical music (and many other things actually), I feel constrained to begin by admitting that I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'm not a musician, or an expert listener, or whatever. My only qualification is that I own at least 200 cds that I hardly ever listen to...

But I listen to this one. I bought it when I went to Versailles; it was packaged as "the music of Versailles," which made it interesting to me.

If you are a student of music history, then obviously this will be interesting for reasons that I have no familiarity with. However, the rest of us will be happy to know that this is pleasant to listen to, the kind of thing you might expect to hear in a coffee shop, or in an excellent classical music store. Your friends will be very happy to have it in the background as you chat; you will be able to get work done in a good mood.

As a history teacher desparate to make things interesting for students, I often incorporate this kind of thing into my lessons. I can strongly recommend it for that!

In short, I like this CD, and I think many other people will too. Especially people who like Bach and other Baroque composers.