When Stravinsky wrote his own sober if seductive Mass setting, he stressed the importance of using emotionally cold music to ensure nothing obscured its spiritual purpose; so what he would have made of the Requiem Mass by Alfred Bruneau, a French composer (1857-1934) of crazily overheated Romantic ambition, one dreads to think. But then he probably never heard it, because Bruneau’s Requiem is too extravagant to get performances. It’s known by legend rather than experience. And no doubt prompted by the legend, crowds of people filed on All Souls' Day into St Mary Magdalene, Paddington, west London, where it was done not just in concert but liturgically.
2:30 PM
A rarely-seen Requiem performed with a vengeance
when stravinsky wrote his own sober if seductive mass setting, he stressed the importance of using emotionally cold music to ensure nothing ...
Michael White
3 min read
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