December 21, 2018

  • A Requiem for Our Time

     

    Harbison: Requiem
    Jessica Rivera, soprano. Michaela Martens, mezzo-soprano.
    Nicolas Phan, tenor. Kelly Markgraf, baritone.
    Nashville Symphony and Chorus/Giancarlo Guerrero
    Naxos 8.559841
    Total Time:  54:34
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Recorded in May 2017, John Harbison’s Requiem (2002) is in that league of concert pieces that explore these texts.  Most requiems tend to be specifically written for a person, or like Britten’s War Requiem explore a particular theme.  In the case of this work, the composer seems to have been compelled to work towards what would become this completed piece over the course of some 17 years.

    The Requiem essentially came together with a commission from the Boston Symphony in 2001, which premiered in Bernard Haitink’s last season with the orchestra as principal guest conductor.  It gave Harbison a chance to bring together these various musical threads that had begun forming in his mind that would find their way into his opera, The Great Gatsby, and some additional smaller works through the 1990s.  By the time of the commission, these various components were beginning to move towards the realization of the larger scale work that would be a personal reflection on death, but, as Harbison notes in his description, “moving toward consolation and acceptance.”  Not long after the agreement for the work was finalized, the events of 9/11 provided an additional reference point to help provide some space for reflection of love and loss.  And so, the final work is this blend of a sort of musical obsession and journey on the one hand, and an attempt to give voice to the historical moments of the listener effected perhaps on the grander scale of tragedy as well as that of a more intimate and personal nature.

    The piece has moments for soloists but these are integrated in a way that lends them specific voice to the text and can ultimately connect on a more personal level.  It is set in two larger parts with the first ending with the “Lacrymosa” text and the second moving us from the “Offertorium” through the “Sanctus” (an Orff-like moment) and “Agnus Dei” and into reflections of paradise.  The “Introit” opens with this sense of quietude and darkness, like a slow awakening into grief with tinges of hope that gains as the choral voices begin to move in counterpoint and become more demanding of satisfaction.  The music is infused with the sense of ancient modes and texts but coupled with modern tonal writing.  The “Tuba mirum” incorporates some jazzy brass qualities (reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein).  One is struck though by the ways these massive choral textures incorporate some often fascinating sectional writing for brass and winds that cut through the sound well.  Against this is a host of familiar and interesting percussion sounds that add to the flavor of the text, modernizing it a bit.  The harmonies have this rather open feel at times in these massive blocks that can move with emotional intensity towards the bigger climaxes.  When the first solo enters in “Quid sum miser” with askance towards some sort of explanation to the tragedy around us, it is a stunning moment that further creates a personal connection to the work.  The solo voices tend to be set in a way that creates impassioned outbursts and then a pulling back to a more personal reflective style.  Though they may all sing together they are more like individual responses to the text that weave between one another like different views of a shared experience.  This is a rather fascinating aspect of the work.  The final movements help us contemplate the depths of our own grief amidst the promises of light and paradise.

    Guerrero leads a committed performance here that is captured beautifully in Naxos’ sound.  The orchestra responds well as does the chorus and the soloists each lend a nice ethereal and personal quality that works well.  It is a deeply personal piece as well, not just from the composer’s own telling, but the listener’s own interaction and response to this music which will require a few listens to begin to mine this important new work which appears to be receiving its premiere recording.  Though it premiered on a program with Beethoven’s fourth symphony, it would make an excellent pairing for John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls.  Both inhabit this world of ethereal exploration and personal responses from two important American composers of our time.