Der Schallplattenmann

"... definitives Highlight des Jahres.....Eine der besten CDs aus dem Klassik-Bereich, die mir heuer untergekommen ist."

 Carson Cooman, Fanfare magazine

"I cannot say enough in praise of this work, which is one of the finest Requiem settings of our time; I am absolutely convinced will join the great ones from the past."

Naxos Blogspot

Carl Rütti’s Requiem is a Naxos recording that caught many of us by surprise last year. It’s rich and dark beauty somehow resonated with a few of us enough to make our best of 2009 lists. I decided to contact Carl and see if I could get him to speak about this fantastic piece of music.

Review by Robert Reilly - November 30, 2009 - CatholiCity

Reprinted with permission from our good friends at InsideCatholic.com, the leading online journal of Catholic faith, culture, and politics.

www.catholicity.com/commentary/rreilly/07292.html

Review by Philip Reed- 01 January 2010 - Choir & Organ

The Bach Choir commissioned Rütti’s Requiem (2007), scored for double choir and the same pair of soloists and orchestral forces (strings, harp, organ) as the Fauré Requiem, with the expressed intention that the work be as accessible to as many choirs as possible. This recording, with virtually the same team who gave the premiere in Winchester in 2008, is exemplary both in terms of engineering and performance. …Hill and his forces are excellent advocates for Rütti’s piece, giving a performance shining with commitment.

Review by Bob McQuiston - November 2009 - Cadence

RECOMMENDED 

Review by Steven Whitehead - Thursday 10th December 2009 - cross rhythms

http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/products/Carl_Rutti_The_Bach_Choir_David_Hill/Requiem/87207/

Review by Stephen Pritchard - Sunday 11 October 2009 - The Observer,

The latest classical CD releases, including a glorious Rütti requiem

Carl Rütti

Requiem Olivia Robinson, soprano; Edward Price, baritone; Janet Watts, organ. The Bach Choir; Southern Sinfonia/David Hill Naxos 8.572317

This release is an event in the choral world: a fine new Requiem to add to the repertoire, with challenging yet accessible lines for double choir, glorious passages for soloists and an accompaniment adaptable to available forces. The Bach Choir sings magnificently here, particularly in the terrific Sanctus, and young soloists Olivia Robinson and Edward Price bring Rütti's lyrical pen to glorious life. No wonder it brought the audience to its feet at its premiere.

Quelle: www.guardian.co.uk

Review by Terry Blain - December 2009 - BBC Music Magazine

Strings, harp and organ - the original Bach Choir commission for this Requiem specified the work should be for the same forces as Fauré's masterpiece. Carl Rütti's finished product, however, feels an altogether bigger-boned, more explicitly dramatic composition: nowhere in the Fauré is there anything approaching the ferocity of the wrenching string writing introducing the Kyrie, nor the surgingly operatic imprecations of its soprano and baritone soloists. In stark contrast, the work both begins and ends a cappella, the soprano symbolising, as Rütti comments, "that we enter and leave life weak and alone". These are arrestingly imagined, moving moments. 

Rütti's idiom is hard to describe without making it sound derivative - broadly tonal, certainly, but even at its most obviously 'accessible' (in the intimately lyrical Agnus Dei) with enough happening texturally and harmonically to interest a more sophisticated palette. Some of the string writing (in the Communio, for instance) does recall Fauré, but with a more troubled undertow, and overall Rütti's voice is unquestionably distinctive. The Bach Choir has clearly taken this Requiem to its collective heart (by no means an automatic reaction to a commission!) and performs it with involving fervency under the experienced direction of David Hill.

PERFORMANCE: 4 stars

RECORDING: 4 stars

Review by Ivan Moody- 01/12/2009 - Gramophone

The music of Swiss composer Carl Rütti seems to have gained considerable ground in the repertoires of British and American choirs in recent years, and this setting of the Requiem shows just why. He has a gift for finding a memorable 'hook' to trigger a section - and, in this case, the entire work, which begins with a haunting soprano solo, beautifully sung by Olivia Robinson - and a clear connection to the English choral tradition (he studied in London in fact). The orchestration is the same as that of the Fauré Requiem, and that is not the only resemblance between the two works: there is frequently a wistful gentleness here that any admirer of the French composer's work will respond to. Rütti also does not include the 'Dies Irae', but he does set the 'In Paradisum'.... 

Review by David Denton - October 2009 - David's Review Corner

Trained as a pianist and organist, the Swiss-born Carl Rütti spent a student period in England where his interest in the qualities of British choral singing was awakened. The result has been an impressive list of works that are as rewarding to the performer as they are to the listener. The Requiem came as a result of a commission from The Bach Choir and was completed in 2007. It is in the seven conventional sections, using strings, harp and organ as the accompaniment—the same as used by Fauré in his Requiem. But Rütti often speaks in dramatic tones, with dissonances giving the strings a powerful presence that is then supplemented at key moments by the power of the organ. The long Offertorium is a particularly impressive section, while he oft uses the long floating high passages we find in John Tavener’s works. You will also enjoy those moments when he uses the strings to produce totally fresh sounds as in the Benedictus. The performance conducted by David Hill is given by much the same forces as those responsible for its premiere in February 2008, the singing having that mark of familiarity. Good sound. 

>> Interview über das Requiem auf Youtube

Das Requiem ist erschienen bei Novello (www.chesternovello.com)