TO hear Durufle's Requiem is to be reminded of Raymond Postgate's dying wish: to have a bottle of Chateau d' Yquem siphoned into his mouth. But the large audience for Glasgow Chamber Choir's performance last week suggested he
wasn't the only one to equate death with something very sweet.
Composed more than half a century ago, it is still drawing the crowds. Yet even in the most sympathetic of performances, the music seems a very long swallow.
Encountering it so soon after Faure's Requiem in Perth was to a cruel reminder that there is nothing in Durufle's Requiem which Faure didn't do infinitely better. If Robert Marshall and his recently-formed chorus made it sound nothing if not ersatz, they at least did it in an agreeably undulating way, and made the most of its little moments of theatricality.
But the preceding group of Durufle motets were musically far more successful. Vaughan Williams's compact G minor Mass, too, could only profit from the context in which it was placed, and from such clear-toned, expressive singing.
Earlier in this somewhat straggling concert there had been samples of Taverner and Tallis, with a small masterstroke when Tallis's Why fum'th in sight led straight into Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia for strings, employing the same melody as its inspiration.
The BT Scottish Ensemble, too small to convey the full contrasts of this work, played it with plenty of atmosphere. If their contribution to the Durufle was less impressive, they were hardly to blame.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article