This requiem contains:
01. Introitus 7:28
02. Sequentia 19:47
03. Sanctus 7:02
04. Agnus Dei 6:00
05. Communio 7:03
♫ 01. Introitus
© Portugalsom 870010
♫ 02. Sequentia
© Portugalsom 870010
♫ 03. Sanctus
© Portugalsom 870010
♫ 04. Agnus Dei
© Portugalsom 870010
♫ 05. Communio
© Portugalsom 870010
This requiem written for the victims of fascism in Portugal (of the Salazar-regime), is a late work of errantly meandering tonality. It is no more challenging than Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht or Strauss's Metamorphosen. Its soaked textures will, especially in the massed choral and solo writing, remind you of Herbert Howells' Stabat Mater and, certainly of Britten's War Requiem. There are five movements: "Introito", "Dies irae", "Sanctus", "Agnus Dei", "Communio". The "Introito" is riddled with foreboding with optimistic lines rising out of the fog. The "Dies irae" (the single largest movement at almost 20 minutes) is saw-toothed with violent assaults from the brass taking a leaf from Penderecki's book. Anger and resentment and Brucknerian jagged brass bark out step-down fanfares. The music seems to speak of the plate tectonics of great change; of those ground down and of those exalted. The explosively joyous Sanctus boisterous at first soon collapses into music for solo violin then gathers itself for violence and a vinegary gibbering march (3.03). The "Agnus Dei" conveys a sense of a medieval clock tolling the passage of time and includes an ululating soprano - calm and gentle consolation out of the pages of Tippett's Child Of Our Time. The final communio rises to fill the cavernous space used for this recording. There is little unalloyed joy and a high quotient of gloom and stoical resignation. The ululating soprano returns at the close. Definitely a most moving piece. But for the accidents of geography and cultural barriers this music would have secured (and may yet secure) the place held by the War Requiem. For now it stands in the unjustly quiet company of such unaccountably neglected masterworks as Fricker's Vision of Judgement and Malcolm Williamson's Mass of Christ the King.