The Requiem was written in 1985 in response to the death of the composer’s father the previous year. (A requiem is a version of the mass used at funerals and to commemorate the departed.) Rutter drew musical inspiration much more from the tender intimacy of Fauré’s Requiem than from the monumental drama of those by Verdi or Britten. He uses carefully chosen extracts from the conventional sections of the requiem mass (Requiem aeternam, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Lux aeterna) alongside settings of Psalms 130 and 23 and, at one point, words from the Church of England burial service. The whole work has a symmetrical structure of seven movements, the Sanctus at the centre being framed on each side by a sequence of prayer-psalm-prayer. The two psalm movements make striking use of solo instruments and plainsong-like melodies; and indeed the whole pattern is reinforced by the musical treatment, making this an agreeably satisfying - as well as hauntingly beautiful - work to listen to.
Peter Harbord, North
Yorkshire Chorus
