Durufle: Requiem / Respighi: Concerto Gregoriano (Ivan Repusic) (CD, Br-Klassik)

Ivan Repusic, the new chief conductor of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, dedicates his first CD on BR KLASSIK to works by the composers Maurice Duruflé and Ottorino Respighi, which essentially refer back to the melodies and harmonies of Gregorian chant. The French Duruflé’s Requiem is based on the Gregorian Missa pro defunctis, the Latin mass for the dead. And the Italian Respighi in his Concerto gregoriano used the medieval chorale chants as a source of inspiration for the harmonious sound of the concert and the vocal design of the violin solo. Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem became universally famous: the premiere in 1947 was one of the most striking events of his career, helped him achieve a breakthrough as a composer and made his name known beyond the borders of France. The self-contained, uniform and contemplative composition is based on themes from the Gregorian mass for the dead. In his work, Duruflé succeeded in merging Gregorian chant with baroque polyphony and a richly colored orchestration into a single unit. The spiritual and internalized character of the chants is harmoniously combined with the personal style of the composer. Like an addiction, Ottorino Respighi had gripped Gregorian chant, the influence of which was very strong on his art. The expression of Gregorian chants can be found in almost all of his works after 1920. The reason that these puristic melodies in connection with the harmony of the church modes exerted a great fascination on him was also their greatest possible contrast to the overheated, chromatically refined harmony of the Verists and post-Wagnerians. The path to atonality was never an option for Respighi; In the archaic, bitter character of Gregorian chant and the ancient sages, however, he recognized an innovative potential.