Fauré: Requiem; Pavane; Pelléas et Mélisande [Original recording remastered, Import]

Bernard Kruysen (Performer), Gabriel Faure (Composer), Jean Fournet (Conductor), David Zinman (Conductor), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra), Daniel Chorzempa (Performer), Elly Ameling (Performer), Jill Gomez (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Bernard Kruysen, Daniel Chorzempa, Elly Ameling, Jill Gomez
• Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Jean Fournet, David Zinman
• Composer: Gabriel Faure
• Audio CD (December 18, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Import
• Label: Philips Import
• ASIN: B000058AYS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,066 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music beautifully performed, October 11, 2001

By 

klavierspiel "klavierspiel" (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fauré: Requiem; Pavane; Pelléas et Mélisande (Audio CD)

This CD contains some of the most deservedly popular music of the French composer Gabriel Fauré in solid performances. The gentle consolatory Requiem benefits from the presence of Elly Ameling, whose crystalline voice is perfectly suited to the "Pie Jesu" solo. The Netherlands Radio Chorus sings beautifully, while Bernard Kruysen is rapt and idiomatic, but somewhat tremulous and not as substantial vocally as others who have recorded this brief but important role.

The rest of the CD contains the familiar Pavane and the Pelléas and Mélisande incidental music, from whence is derived the ubiquitous Sicilienne. Listeners who are not acquainted with the rest of the music will be pleased to hear that it is equally as beautiful. One surprise to me--one of the other numbers in this suite shares a melody with the almost equally well-known Fantaisie for Flute, Op. 79. All of it is superbly played and conducted. At this price this is certainly a very competitive version of the Requiem, for all but die-hard baritone fans.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Revelatory Performance of Requiem!!!, April 29, 2011

By 

Scriabinmahler (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fauré: Requiem; Pavane; Pelléas et Mélisande (Audio CD)

I've been looking for a definitive recording of Faure's Requiem for decades, but only thing I've found out is that something always goes wrong - whether it's judgement of tempi, selections of solo singers or acoustics of the recording. Then, I stumbled on this one, played by Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, which comes very close to the ideal version. Jean Fournet judges the tempo just right - neither too fast nor too slow - for each movement, and the choir's glorious singing captures the heavenly serenity of the music with dignity and noble beauty. Bernard Kruysen's baritone is fine and Elly Ameling sings Pie Jesu with her radiant voice, without the operatic diva flourish which mars so many other recordings. The quality of the recording is vivid and atmospheric, which presents the music afresh. Coupled with the beautifully crafted performance of Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by David Zinman, this CD is well worth adding to your collection.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not disappointing, January 20, 2006

By 

Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fauré: Requiem; Pavane; Pelléas et Mélisande (Audio CD)

I just listened to this, in its new remastered form, and was very impressed. Ameling had always been one of the selling points of this disc--probably why Philips tends to keep it around in one form or another. The Dutch chorus is wonderful and if the conducting is four-square I hardly noticed. I'm surprised elswhere on this page that the easily available and excellent Herreweghe on Harmonia Mundi was not recommended as an alternative instead of recordings that either haven't been issued on CD or can't be found anywhere on this planet. I once met a fellow who worked in a record store who when asked to recommend, say, a great Beethoven Fifth would go one and on about some unavailable bootleg recording or LP that had been out of print for 35 years. I followed up on his suggestions at times and found myself wallowing in a world I never want to be a part of. Most of these hard-to-find recordings were interesting, or had their merits, but were hardly the grail. After a while I realized he was a snob who reveled in his knowledge of the arcane--the less known the orchestra, conductor, or label, the better. I prefer older recordings that sadly, like this one, are going out of print, but I can usually find great ones on labels that at least sold in stores that weren't only in Bulgaria. I gave him many Not Helpful votes.

One of the people on this page writes reviews for a classical music magazine that gets slimmer every year. Eventually (I predict five to ten years) it will stop publishing. I know its competitor already has big problems; libraries don't even subscribe to it anymore. The classical music market is in serious decline. Eventually the Testament label with its specialty $25 CDs will vanish too, along with the whole collector market. This will happen sooner than anyone thinks. When the obituary is written for the whole Classical Music World (by some future Gibbon) it'll be noted that it was a suicide.