Fauré: Requiem

iTunes Review

Composers have traditionally set the mass for the dead to mourn the passing of a specific individual and evoke the awe surrounding death. Not so Gabriel FaurŽ, who claimed to have written his Requiem "for the pleasure of it" and suffused it with an inspiring sense of tranquility. The essence of such serenity is the voice of New Zealander Kiri Te Kanawa, joined here by the longtime Metropolitan Opera baritone Sherrill Milnes. Charles Dutoit and his Orchestre symphonique de MontrŽal, masters of 20th-century French repertoire, also shine in FaurŽ's two most popular orchestral works in this peaceful and perfect program.