Das Berliner Requiem, Flemish Radio Choir, Darius Milhaud, Vom Tod im Wald, Darius Milhaud - Weill, Stravinsky: Das Berliner Requiem (2006) [SACD]

Whatever formidable technical & interpretive challenges are posed by these vocal works they’re surmounted by the Flemish Radio Choir with aplomb. A thought-provoking & revelatory programme. Enthusiastically recommended. After Jean Cocteau had issued tracts such as Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918) & Le Rappel à l’ordre (1926), arguing against French Impressionism & German Romanticism & in favour of art for art’s sake & with prominence being given to accessibility, simplicity & structural clarity, many composers responded to his clarion call.
The devastation & emotional misery caused by the 1st World War & the fear of an impending further cataclysm also struck hard at existing artistic certainties. Through their music Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud & Kurt Weill all endeavoured to make sense of this “new Europe” which they were experiencing around them & for its latest Glossa release the Flemish Radio Choir (VRK) has selected an ideal quintet of works to demonstrate these tendencies as well as highlighting the vocal talents of this leading European choral formation. Kurt Weill’s 1928 secular mass for the dead, Das Berliner Requiem (along with the contemporaneous cantata Vom Tod im Wald), represents the jewel in this crown, & the VRK is accompanied by I Solisti del Vento, who also offer Stravinsky’s 1923 Octet for Wind Instruments.
Both ensembles are performing here under the direction of 1 of the leading choral directors of today in Paul Hillier, who is as exacting in his interpretation of music from the 20th century onwards as he is in compositions from distinctly earlier periods.