Fauré: Requiem - Songs / Bonney, Hagegard, W. Jones; Ozawa

Gabriel Fauré (Artist), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Artist), John Oliver (Artist), Barbara Bonney (Artist), Hakan Hagegard (Artist), Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Artist), Warren Jones (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 11, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003G6O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,953 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #36 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Bonney, Barbara

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully played, April 4, 2004

By 

Prescott Cunningham Moore (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fauré: Requiem - Songs / Bonney, Hagegard, W. Jones; Ozawa (Audio CD)

Seji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra give a stunning performance here of the Fauré Requiem. This requiem is unique in that it is not a piece meant to instill fear and the terror of death into the listener. Fauré, as a church organist, was tired of hearing and performing masses that were dark, heavy, and macabre. Thus, he created here a requiem mass not focused on the dark aspects of death but rather the beauty and calm of the pending afterlife. This work is one of the most exquisite jewels in the entirety of music. The moving power of the Requiem mass is truly heavenly.

Ozawa gives a very good reading of the Requiem. The recording sound is crystal clear, which brings out the beauty of the choral part writing. This is a wonderful recording.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly beautiful, January 7, 2004

By A Customer

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This review is from: Fauré: Requiem - Songs / Bonney, Hagegard, W. Jones; Ozawa (Audio CD)

This is a thoroughly enjoyable CD. I am certainly no authority, but the requiem is performed here with an awesome sense of power and majesty. The other (European) recordings I've heard of this piece pale in comparison and sound lifeless. This one gives me chills.

The solo pieces by Barbara Bonney and Haken Hagegard fit well and are also beautifully performed. Barbara Bonney is now a favorite of mine - she truly shines in these songs.

I don't see how anyone could help but be swept off their feet by this disk - a new favorite of mine.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Limp Requiem, but Bonney is lovely in the songs, August 25, 2006

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fauré: Requiem - Songs / Bonney, Hagegard, W. Jones; Ozawa (Audio CD)

The highlight of this CD isn't the main work but the 13 songs of Faure performed by Barbara Bonney and her then-hsuband Hakan Hagegard. She in particular is very special in this repertoire, not singing with perfect idiomatic French but sitll using her delightful lyric-coloratura with real artistry. Not since the young Kathleen Battle have these Faure gems sounded so good.

Bonney is also a standout in the Requiem, where Hagegard comes off as rather colorless and lacking in religious fervency in the Libera Me. But it's probably Ozawa who's to blame, since his conducting is often limp instead of reverent. Maybe he equates the two. Orchestra and chorus, as you'd expect, are flawless. If only one didn't feel that the music was being laid out on a table in the morgue. My four-star rating is for the songs.