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Bringing Requiems to Resounding Life May 6, 2004 By James F. Cotter, For the Times Herald-Record Blooming Grove - Hearing two Requiems with their thoughts of death might seem like a gloomy way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon in May, but you are mistaken. "The Requiems of Gabriel Fauré and John Rutter," although written almost a hundred years apart, have one thing in common: They see death as an experience of religious faith and hope, celebrated in liturgical and biblical expressions of eternal rest and perpetual light. The Orange County Classic Choral Society and Orchestra presented the two works Sunday at the United Church of Christ in Blooming Grove; the concert will be repeated Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church in Middletown. Once again, director Janiece Kohler has wedded the old with the new for a musical concert that is as unusual as it is rewarding. Conducting the 72 singers and 28-piece orchestra, she offered an accomplished and fascinating program that provided fresh insights into the tradition of choral music to show how talented contemporary composers turn to the old to create modern music. Rutter rides on the shoulders of Fauré in his commemoration of the dead. Fauré's Requiem is in seven parts and follows the Roman Catholic Mass from the opening prayers (Introit and Kyrie) to the traditional Agnus Dei. But the composer adds additional prayers for deliverance to Paradise not in the Mass but in the Prayers for the Dead so that he ends with visions of heaven amid choirs of angels. A solemn brass flourish announces the word "Requiem," which the tenors then transpose to a plea for light. All join in a prayer for mercy in the "Kyrie," which then leads in the Offertory to a baritone solo. Robert Smith's rich and appealing voice here and even more effectively in the "Libera Me" was sincere and convincing. Surprisingly, the Sanctus sounded light and lyrical with harp and strings supporting the soaring voices. Soprano Jody Weatherstone intoned the "Pie Jesu" with delicate spiritual emphasis, a passage which Rutter repeats in his Requiem and which Weatherstone again rendered with extraordinary beauty. Rutter begins his Requiem with a note of foreboding that quickly shifts to a quiet plea for forgiveness. He introduces two psalms in his work, the moving "Out of the depths," accompanied by a solo cello, and "The Lord is my Shepherd," supported by the oboe. A funeral procession in the Agnes Dei is first echoed by drumbeats but yields to the hope of resurrection announced by the flute.
The work ends with a celebration of light, a theme that resonates in both works. The word "Lux" becomes illuminated by both voices and instruments to sound a note of faith that reaches out of the dark depths to a call for renewal of life. The concert seemed to echo the season of spring that blossoms beyond the music.
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