André Cluytens - Fauré: Requiem (1998)

The growing popularity of Faure's Requiem has made it fashionable in some music circles to be slightly superior about it. Revisiting this classic recording (which was first re-issued by EMI in 1989, having been available as a budget LP for over 30 years) reminds me why that is a wholly misplaced reaction. Victoria de los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bring real depth to their solos. The Paris Conservatoire under Cluytens dwells on the luscious instrumental textures at the surface of the work, but there is loss and longing in there too. Faure's Requiem sits on the cusp of religiosity and agnosticism. This classic performance captures its sheer warmth and humanity. No doubt there are better technical recordings - in at least two places there are badly engineered fades that presumably go back to the original master tapes. But if you want the emotion and feeling of this twentieth century classic, here is a fine place to start.