# Obscure but really good requiems of the romantic period



## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

Recommendations?


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Not so obscure but Maurice Durufle's Requiem is nice - written in the mid C20 but very anachronistic. Early litugical influence with a romantic bent


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Hardly an obscure composer, but Schumann's requiem rarely sees the light of day. I think it has some interesting moments in it.

And I haven't listened to it for a while, but I remember enjoying Cherubini's requiem (if that counts as Romantic).

I'm now reminding myself of the latter with this video:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Is Saint-Saens' requiem considered obscure? At least it was for me; I didn't know about it until recently.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Try Donizetti's, written after death of Bellini:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I second the Saint-Saens, and I suggest you look for the Requiem by Portuguese composer João Domingos Bomtempo.


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Here's a list of composer who wrote requiem masses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_the_Requiem_Mass


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## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

Thanks, friends.
The truth is that except the Potugese guy, João Domingos Bomtempo, none of the composers you mentioned were obscure, at least not to me. The point is that I found no release of his Requiem!
The Wikipedia list is helpful, but doesn't rank the works. I can't tell which one really worths buying.
B


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Where the works known to you, or the composers? If you're going "extra for experts" then use spotify or youtube to explore - it's free - and you can see what you like. Most works are avaliable in whole or part from these sources and you can try before you buy rather than rely on the taste of TC members!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bomtempo Requiem on CD (and the Suppe one as well):
Amazon link.

I don't know this version though (I have the CD on Portugalsom).


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Concerning Bomtempo, I´ve got the Rögner recording, and it is quite good http://www.amazon.com/Messe-De-Requiem-Bomtempo/dp/B000007RQK

Other requiems of those days include

Reger op.144 




Reger op.145 




and, less interesting IMO, those by

Asger Hamerik 



Liszt 



Donizetti 



Peter Benoit


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

I know Winterreisender has already mentioned them, but in addition to all of the other excellent recommendations, I'd like to echo:

Schumann's Requiem!!!

Cherubini composed two Requiems. Both are magnificent!!!

Edit: Oops, forgot the stipulation that they be Romantic Era Requiems. Still, both of Cherubini's Requiems are worth listening to.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I've never been able to understand the neglect of the Dvorak requiem, which is just plain gorgeous .
It is probably the longerst requiem at bout an hour and half , even longer than Verdi's , which might be one reason .
There are several excellent recordings , not all available , including Ancerl on DG , Sawallisch on Supraphon,
both with the Czech Phil, Kertesz /LSO on Decca , Armin Jordan on Erato . 
If you don't know the Dvorak requiem, you will ask yourself where it's been all your life when you hear it .


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

dgee said:


> Where the works known to you, or the composers? If you're going "extra for experts" then use spotify or youtube to explore - it's free - and you can see what you like. Most works are avaliable in whole or part from these sources and you can try before you buy rather than rely on the taste of TC members!


Well then let's close TC down then.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Well there is Joseph Leopold Eybler, for ever known as the man who couldn't finish Mozart's requiem. He wrote a requiem of his own which is quite good, late classical/early romantic. Josef Rheinberger wrote several and his many choral works are beautiful but underrated. A few more significant ones: Giovanni Bottesini, Giovanni Sgambati, Marco Enrico Bossi, Charles Villiers Stanford, Daniel De Lange. The last one there De Lange is an unaccompanied one and sounds very interesting. Gounod wrote a couple as well as setting another requiem inside his oratorio _Mors et Vita_. That oratorio was commissioned by Birmingham Musical Festival which also commissioned Dvorak's Requiem when choral societies were all the rage in victorian England.

On the continent there seems to have been a reaction against the more operatic of church music, like Verdi's requiem. The so called Cecilian movement (taking its name from St Cecilia) desired a to return to the plainer Gregorian chant which had fallen out of fashion and quite a lot of religious music was produced with this in mind but it doesn't seem to have lasted.

Here's a blog I found about requiems and a book you can read at least partially online cataloguing them:
http://requiemvision.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/63552004/Dies-Irae-A-Guide-to-Requiem-Music


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

quack said:


> Well there is Joseph Leopold Eybler, for ever known as the man who couldn't finish Mozart's requiem.


A sad spectacle indeed.

Eybler: "I...I...I just can't do it. It's so HARD!"

Constanze: "Suck it up, Eybler, and get the job done. If you can't handle it, I'll find someone who can."

And she did, of course.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I really like *Stanford's* requiem, which quack mentioned. Its from the late 19th century but effectively could have been written in the middle of that century. Save for using a recurring horn call that is reminiscent of Wagner, the instrumental accompaniment although for a large orchestra, has the restraint and classicism of Mendelssohn. In terms of the writing for the soloists, Verdi comes to mind, you've got that Italian warmth and some deal of passion. In terms of the choral writing though, its uniquely Stanford's own, that kind of hazy and cloudy feel of Anglican tradition. Overall it is not a fire and brimstone requiem, its more lyrical and kind of poetic, however the Lacrymosa does have a bit of angst in it, the valley of tears does sound quite melancholic.


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