FAURÉ Requiem.1 Pavane.2 DURUFLÉ Requiem3 • David Willcocks, cond;1,2 Philip Ledger, cond;3 Robert Chilcott (trb);1 John Carol Case (bar);1 John Wells (org); Gareth Morris (fl);2 Janet Baker (mez);3 Stepher Roberts (bar);3 Timothy Hugh, (vc);3 John Butt (org);3 King’s College Ch Cambridge;1,3 New Philharmonia O1,2 • EMI 79989 (79:45 &)

Recorded in 1967 and 1980 respectively, these performances of the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems have been much admired over the years, are often cited in comparisons as preferred readings, and have now been issued together in EMI’s “Great Recordings of the Century.” Their distinction is continuity, a shared view between Willcocks and Ledger chez the King’s College Choir that these works should be given with unhurried straightforwardness—simplicity—which does not probe for perhaps more than is in them. The Fauré, in particular, while not lacking in warmth, attains a bleached purity in its use of boys’ voices in the upper parts, John Carol Case’s fine light baritone in no-nonsense deliveries of the Offertoire and Libera me, and boy treble Robert Chilcott’s palpable innocence (that is, limited range, power, and expressiveness) in the Pie Jesu. Similarly, this organ-accompanied version of the Duruflé is notable for lapidary choral work and unpretentious solos, including Janet Baker’s dark-hued Pie Jesu. Sound is balanced, close, and detailed in spacious aural frames, though the more recessed, panoramic capture of the Duruflé allows voices and organ greater bloom, or aureole. In Willcocks’s hands the Pavane is a prolonged sigh and gracious bonus. Which is to say that this is an eminently self-commending offering.

How avidly you’ll want it very likely depends on whether your response to these works is devotional or aesthetic. If the former, of such is the kingdom of heaven and you’ll find it to have and to hold. My (probably jaded) preference is for more sensuous readings, while Fauré’s Pie Jesu is simply too delectable to waste upon tremulously feckless child crooners—Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, with the Elisabeth Brasseur Chorus, Fischer-Dieskau and Victoria de los Ángeles, is another notion of optimum. Likewise, despite the solid virtues of Ledger’s go at the Duruflé, I remain partial to the composer-led orchestral version. The discography of either work is an embarrassment of riches in which this album looms as yet another jewel. Chacun à son goût.

FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis