Requiem (2007)

…a large part of the success of the work lies in its scoring for double chorus, lending the writing a richness of texture and, where appropriate, the opportunity for antiphonal exchanges.
Rütti’s broadly tonal writing – it’s sort of English choral tradition inflected with elements from jazz and blues with a dash of Messiaen-inspired mysticism (Rütti is also an organist) – delivers singable lines for all sections of the chorus…
Novello’s vocal score lives up to the high standards set by other publications in its ongoing choral edition; and it’s heartening to see, amid the new editions of all the choral society favourites, the company investing in contemporary choral music in such a positive way – three cheers for them!

…Though there is a definite “British choral” influence on Rütti’s style, there are also Eastern European and Baltic characteristics that all combine to produce his personal voice. The resulting blend produces a truly wonderful mix of the practical melodic and modal character of much British music, and the poignant mysticism of many Baltic composers. The work begins and ends evocatively with an unaccompanied soprano solo, which the composer intends to represent the soul “alone before God.” Particular highlights of the work include the transcendently beautiful choral writing in the mostly unaccompanied Introitus that follows the opening soprano solo. The powerful and urgent Kyrie is extremely memorable. The most extended movement is the central Offertorium, which is packed with spine-tingling climaxes and textures. A memorable recurring motive throughout the whole Requiem is a sequence of shifting chords with false relations on the word “Jerusalem”; it is particularly glorious…. Perhaps what is most impressive to me about Rütti’s piece is how much genuine musical interest and variety he creates, despite the small forces. In terms of the creative spirit (though only rarely the actual sound of the music), James MacMillan’s seminal early pieces, such as Seven Last Words, are called to mind….. Though I was somewhat “jaded” upon receiving the disc to see yet another new Latin Requiem by a contemporary composer, Rütti’s superb piece completely won me over. I cannot say enough in praise of this work, which is one of the finest Requiem settings of our time; I am absolutely convinced it will join the great ones from the past.

The Bach Choir commissioned Rütti’s Requiem (2007), scored for double choir and the same pair of soloist and orchestral forces (strings, harp, organ) as the Fauré Requiem, with the expressed intention that the work be as accessible to as may choirs as possible. This recording, with virtually the same team who gave the premiere in Winchester in 2008, is exemplary both in terms of engineering and performance….

Strings, harp and organ – the original Bach Choir commission for this Requiem specified the work should be for the same forces as Fauré’s masterpiece. Carl Rütti’s finished product, however, feels an altogether bigger-boned, more explicitly dramatic composition: nowhere in the Fauré is there anything approaching the ferocity of the wrenching string writing introducing the Kyrie, nor the surgingly operatic imprecations of its soprano and baritone soloists. In stark contrast, the work both begins and ends a cappella, the soprano symbolising, as Rütti comments, “that we enter and leave life weak and alone”. These are arrestingly imagined, moving moments.

Rütti’s idiom is hard to describe without making it sound derivative – broadly tonal, certainly, but even at its most obviously ‘accessible’ (in the intimately lyrical Agnus Dei) with enough happening texturally and harmonically to interest a more sophisticated palette. Some of the string writing (in the Communio, for instance) does recall Fauré, but with a more troubled undertow, and overall Rütti’s voice is unquestionably distinctive. The Bach Choir has clearly taken this Requiem to its collective heart... and performs it with involving fervency under the experienced direction of David Hill.

The music of Swiss composer Carl Rütti seems to have gained considerable ground in the repertoires of British and American choirs in recent years, and this setting of the Requiem shows just why. He has a gift for finding a memorable ‘hook’ to trigger a section – and, in this case, the entire work, which begins with a haunting soprano solo, beautifully sung by Olivia Robinson – and a clear connection to the English choral tradition (he studied in London in fact). The orchestration is the same as that of the Fauré Requiem, and that is not the only resemblance between the two works: there is frequently a wistful gentleness here that any admirer of the French composer’s work will respond to. Rütti also does not include the ‘Dies Irae’, but he does set the ‘In Paradisum’....

This release is an event in the choral world: a fine new Requiem to add to the repertoire, with challenging yet accessible lines for double choir, glorious passages for soloists and an accompaniment adaptable to available forces.