Brahms : A German Requiem
& Poulenc : Gloria

Ronald Corp – conductor  

With Anna Devin – soprano
Gerard Collett – bass
New London Orchestra

Brahms took three years to complete his German Requiem which was first performed, in its final version, in 1869 in Leipzig. It was conceived as a requiem to comfort the living rather than as a memorial for the souls of the dead and it therefore focuses on faith in the resurrection rather than fear of judgment day, as was more typical of the catholic canon.

In contrast to the lushness of the Brahms Requiem, Poulenc's Gloria, composed in 1959 only four years before his death, expresses the composer's exuberance and love of life. According to one of his friends, "there is in him something of the monk and the street urchin". Indeed, Poulenc himself admitted that when writing the Gloria he had in mind "those Crozzoli frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues and also, some solemn-looking Benedictine monks that I saw playing football one day".