Cover: Christ—the crown of thorns (1896) by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)
Hyperion CDA68436 · March 2024
Duruflé: Requiem; Poulenc: Lenten Motets
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Stephen Layton (conductor)
Awards
- Diapason d’Or
Award nominations
- International Classical Music Awards 2025
Selections and Editors’ Choices
- The New York Times Best Classical Recordings of 2024
- AllMusic Favorite Classical Vocal Albums of 2024
Reviews
- The Guardian2024During a long career, the French organist-composer Maurice Duruflé (1902-86) was a towering figure in the specialist world of French organ music, but his much-loved Requiem, Op 9 has given his name wider resonance. Between 1947…Read the review
- Gramophone2024In July 2022, having established themselves in the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache, the Chapel Choir of Trinity College Cambridge under Stephen Layton – in addition to recording a disc of choral music by David Briggs, ‘Hail…Read the review
- Rheinische Post2024We find ourselves in the wrong church, and possibly also in the company of the wrong organ builder, but this is an entirely accomplished recording in which changes of recording venue cause no break in style, but lend enormous…Read the review
- BBC Music Magazine2024The choir is magnificent, emerging through former Trinity organ scholar Harrison Cole’s adroitly chosen organ textures in the Introit, yet producing searing radiance in the climax of the Sanctus. If not fully continental in…Read the review
- BBC Radio 3 CD Review2024The balance [in the Duruflé] puts you in the building in the most extraordinary way … that wonderful envelope of sound that just surrounds you as you listen to it. A shout-out for Harrison Cole—he’s done an extremely good job as…Read the review
- BR-Klassik2024Times of trouble have always produced art that strives for order and peace. The Requiem of the French composer Maurice Duruflé, started in 1941 and completed in 1947, is a product of the Second World War which proclaims peace…Read the review
- Diapason2024In July 2022, the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge [filmed] Duruflé’s Requiem in the heart of Paris… A super-slick production presenting flattering shots of the Church of St. Eustache enveloped in summer night, the faces of…Read the review
- Diapason2024In July 2022, the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge recorded Duruflé’s Requiem in the heart of Paris, the city of his birth, for the cameras of tenor and film director Andrew Staples. A super-slick production offering…Read the review
- MusicWeb International2024Recently, I reviewed a very fine disc of choral and organ music by David Briggs which Stephen Layton and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge had recorded in the Church of Saint-Eustache, Paris in July 2022. It turns out that…Read the review
- The New York Times (Best Classical Music Albums of 2024)2024Everything about this recording is intoxicating: the Choir of Trinity College’s dreamy sound; the setting’s enveloping church acoustic; the weightlessness of the organ-only version of Duruflé’s beloved Requiem. The conductor…Read the review
- The New York Times2024Note for note, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem is an astoundingly pretty work that critics have described as “a luxuriant harmonic bath” and “an impressionist’s large-scale plainsong fantasy.” Trained as an organist and steeped in the…Read the review
- The Sunday Times2024Harrison Cole makes the most of the church’s mighty instrument, and the Trinity choir revels in its resonant acoustics. Poulenc’s four motets are another joy.Read the review
- Yorkshire Times2024Maurice Duruflé was the ‘titulaire’ organist of St Etienne du Mont, Paris. If you walk through the streets from St Etienne towards Les Halles, you have the Pantheon at the top, the Sorbonne, and then Notre Dame Cathedral. Thirty…Read the review
Recorded: Various dates
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: March 2024
Total duration: 55 minutes 57 seconds
Track list
- Requiem Op 9: Introït – Requiem aeternamMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'42
- Requiem Op 9: KyrieMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'55
- Requiem Op 9: Domine Jesu ChristeMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)9'33
- Requiem Op 9: SanctusMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'12
- Requiem Op 9: Pie JesuMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'47
- Requiem Op 9: Agnus DeiMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'56
- Requiem Op 9: Lux aeternaMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)4'26
- Requiem Op 9: Libera meMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)6'10
- Requiem Op 9: In paradisumMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986)3'40
- Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence: Timor et tremorFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963)2'49
- Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence: Vinea mea electaFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963)3'45
- Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence: Tenebrae factae suntFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963)4'00
- Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence: Tristis est anima meaFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963)3'02
Recording details from Hyperion Records.