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$13.99 - Andrew Lloyd Webber - Requiem / Domingo, Brightman, ECO, Maazel
Product DescriptionBefore Andrew Lloyd Webber's seemingly endless run of Broadway shows, when he was known primarily for Jesus Christ Superstar, he managed to write this dramatic, tuneful, occasionally powerful religious work. Although Lloyd Webber takes some liberties with the text and organization of the traditional Requiem mass, the result is a unified and finely crafted composition. There are exciting moments in the "Dies irae" and in the "Lacrymosa", where voices and orchestra are most effectively used to convey the desperate yet hopeful feeling of the text. This work isn't performed much these days in its entirety, but, as in many of Lloyd Webber's musicals, it produced a "hit" tune--the "Pie Jesu"--whose popularity alone could have kept the composer living comfortably for the rest of his life. --David Vernier
Most Recent Customer ReviewsDate : 2010-02-10
Summary : One I missed
I have all of Brightman/Webber's more recent CD's but this is one that I missed. Our church choir sang Pie Jesu at our Christmas Concert and I wanted to hear what it sounded like with Sarah Brightman singing the solo. The CD was well worth it just for that one track.
Date : 2009-11-09
Summary : Excellent for what it is meant to be
Too many of these reviews set out to answer the question of whether Andrew Lloyd Webber had any business writing a requiem, rather than reviewing this recording. One even mistakes Placido Domingo for Luciano Pavarotti, something not even the most casual dabbler would do. For consumers trying to get a sense of this recording I'll try to cut through the pretentious malarky. This was the premiere recording of Webber's work which was given its first performance with this cast of performers. Webber described this as his most personal work, in which he worked out his complex feelings on the death of his father. He was at the time best known as the composer of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and had not yet written "Cats" or "Phantom of the Opera". His Requiem should be understood in this context of a composer's career trajectory.
Webber's Requiem is not intended to be a massive-scale composition on the order of Verdi, Mozart, Brahms, Mahler, Faure, or Britten. That isn't the sort of composer Webber is and is not what he was trying to accomplish. This is a more intimate setting of the work in similar theatrical terms to "Superstar" expressing the liturgical text in very personal melodious terms. He sets the voices in extreme contrast to one another--the tenor is Everyman (us), praying for and celebrating the imminent release of those pained in death. His joyous "Hosanna . . . Benedictus" is cut across suddenly by the anguished Soprano, who is really the "big picture" voice of judgment in this work. The treble represents the voice of those trapped in purgatory and seeking release through salvation. The tenor thus is a voice that emerges fitfully from the earth to cry out to God, whereas he is continually cut off by the voices of the other soloists who remind us of the fear of judgment, the desolation of purgatory, and the cry from the wilderness to be rescued from abandonment. There are elements of Bernstein and Webber's own musical theater compositions to be found here. It is not the most literal setting of the text as a mass, but it is hardly a failure on its own terms as a theatrical treatment of the liturgy.
Webber was married at the time to Sarah Brightman and wrote this soprano part for her. She was at the height of her career in the period that this was recorded and capable of producing the extreme high tones Webber calls for here. Webber also wrote the tenor part having Placido Domingo in mind. Domingo was at his considerable late-mid career best bloom at the time; Webber took advantage of his vocal warmth and power (and his incisive sense of rhythm) to place him in this work as a voice that pops in and out powerfully to deliver symbolic melodic gestures rather than embed that voice within the work. Paul Miles Kingston, the treble, has a voice of purity and some very resonant overtones which give him a combination of power and innocence.
Critics were not very generous with Webber, any more than they were with much of Bernstein's work. "Stick to the musical theater!" is a common theme with these people who seem to resent anyone with low antecedents daring to try to produce serious music. But as it stands, Webber's Requiem, while not as musically unified as Faure's or Verdi's, does what it sets out to do with returning themes and very melodious passages that express his own personal anguish and grief.
Date : 2008-08-31
Summary : Simply Beautiful
This is a beautiful piece of music. My 10-year old is humming it as he plays with his toys. I'm so glad we've added it to our music library.
Date : 2007-10-19
Summary : Unbilivable experience!
Great modern music of Webber. It is not classical Requiem. A little contraversal..
Great mix of boys choir and mixed choir.. and great performers: Sarah and Domingo are really something.. and this kid who sings with Sarah..And Mazel, the head of the project..
Date : 2007-08-23
Summary : Disappointed
I am a fan of music by Andrew Lloyd Weber usually, and also enjoy listening to requiae as a music form. Having heard "Pie Jesu" from this requiem and finding it most moving and beautiful, I ordered the Weber Requiem. It was indeed disappointing with the exception of Pie Jesu, band 7 on the CD. The remainder of the Requiem, regrettably, should be consigned to the dustbin of History. However, the Pie Jesu as sung by Sarah Brightman was worth the cost of the entire CD.
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