Customer Reviews

Danielpour: An American Requiem

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had the pleasure of singing for this recording, and it was a very spiritual experience to work with Mr Danielpour, John Alexander, and Carl St. Clair. Mr. Danielpour, a New Yorker himself, told us that although he had been working on the piece for a couple of years, the very day he had phoned the publishers to ask how much time he had before choosing a dedication for the work was September 11, 2001. The woman he was speaking with was witnessing the WTC being attacked a few blocks from her office in lower Manhattan. Needless to say, the dedication was determined by those very tragic events. He told the story to the audience before we sang the World Premier of his work, and the concert was awe inspiring. Later, we set about the arduous work of recording the piece at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Unlike some recording sessions I have been in, this one went very smoothly, and there seemed to be plenty of time to get the cuts everyone liked. The soloists were troopers and hit the mark every time. I would highly recommend it even if I hadn't participated in it!

I find the previous reviewers attack on composer Richard Danielpour to be uninformed and insulting. This is a beautiful recording and a moving work that just happened to be premiered two months after the 9/11 attack. Does the reviewer seriously think that a piece entitled "An American Requiem" be premiered in Nov. of 2001 without any reference to what had just happened?

The performances are excellent throughout. Mezzo Stephanie Blythe is especially magnificent. The mixing of the traditional Mass text with the American poetry is very effective. Poems about a mother grieving over her lost son and a captain lamenting his fallen comrades offer a more personal experience to a requiem mass.

Give this recording a chance to stand on its own merits. It deserves to be heard and enjoyed for generations and not just be tied to one tragic event in our country's history.

I have compared this Richard Danielpour composition to a different "American Requiem" - composed by Evgeni Kostitsyn. You are welcome to compare the two for yourself. I recommend Kostitsyn's composition more.

Anyone who felt even the least bit of emotional stirring as a result of the 9/11 attacks would do well to avoid this recording. Danielpour cobbles together an incoherent mess of a piece whose references to different styles and idioms is insincere at best. In a rush to further his career, he reoriented this piece around the terrorist attacks while it was near completion not by changing much of the composition, but rather the dedication on the title page. Even without the 9/11 angle, this music is just plain cringe inducing.