When I posted my review of Arthur Honegger’s La Danse des Morts on Troubadisc TRO-CD 01441, five days ago (August 3), on a CD which paired it with Frank Martin’s Requiem, I concluded the review with these words: I’ll return to Frank Martin’s Requiem… “in due time”.
Typically, when I write things like that, it means that I’ll probably return in 20 years or more: I’m a patient reviewer.
But not this time. It happens that I had in my collection the composer’s own recording, on the Swiss label Jecklin-Disco JD 631-2 – the live premiere performance of the composition, on May 4, 1973. So I pulled it out, completed the review of the Troubadisc CD and pubished a review of the Jecklin CD.
The Requiem is a masterpiece and both versions are fine, Troubadisc having, with Honegger’s La Danse des Morts, the advantage of a substantial filler (despite its inadequate narrator). I’ve just ordered another recording of the composition.