Rubens/Danz/Pregardien/Seidel/Speer/Deutsche Radio PO and Chamber Choir Saarbrucken/Gr�n
(H�nssler)
Schumann's Requiem, not to be confused with his Requiem f�r Mignon, which is a setting of part of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, dates from 1852, the year that produced most of his liturgical music. It was the time when his creativity was starting to falter and his mind beginning to disintegrate ? less than two years later he would be incarcerated in the asylum where he died ? and even by the standards of late Schumann, it is not an outstanding work, with rather unvaried choral writing and thick orchestral accompaniments. That probably explains why the Requiem is so rarely heard, and while one can imagine a really committed Schumann conductor ventilating the textures, this dutifully plodding performance will likely do little to increase its popularity, despite its first-class soloists. The other major rarity on the disc is better served: Der K�nigssohn is one of four ballads that Schumann composed in 1851, which are precursors of a whole genre of narrative concert pieces in the second half of the 19th century. It may not be top-drawer Schumann, but it offers a sense of the composer creating something new.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/26/schumann-requiem-konigssohn-review
Georgianna Robertson Reese Witherspoon Jordana Brewster Laetitia Casta Claudette Ortiz
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