Classical Dale Rebecca Rebecca Dale - Requiem For My Mother (2018)
Rebecca Dale - Requiem For My Mother (2018)
Rebecca Dale - Requiem For My Mother (2018)
Materna Requiem 1. Introit 4:10 2. Kyrie 4:02 3. Pie Jesu 3:54 4. Lacrimosa 8:52 5. Agnus Dei 2:22 6. Paradisum Interlude 2:37 7. Ave Maria 4:33 8. Dies Irae & Requiem Variations 8:17 9. Libera Me 3:47 10. In Paradisum: If I Should Go 2:41 Hannah Dienes-Williams (soprano) Louise Alder (soprano) Dave Hinitt (organ) Trystan (tenor) Jonathan Aasgaard (cello) Thelma Handy (violin) Edward Hyde (treble) Trystan Griffiths (tenor) Kantos Chamber Choir Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Clark Rundell - conductor When Music Sounds 1. Prelude: To The Wild 2:01 2. Song's Flight 3:25 3. Out Of The Water 3:12 4. Strange Dreams 6:20 5. I'll Sing 5:01 6. The Earth I Know 7:36 Nazan Fikret (soprano) Richard Harwood (cello) David Theodore (oboe) Janice Graham (violin) The Cantus Ensemble The Studio Orchestra Jeff Atmajian - conductor
Young British composer Rebecca Dale, the first female composer to sign to Decca Classics, will release her debut album ‘Requiem For My Mother’ on 31st August – featuring two major works: her brand new Materna Requiem and her choral symphony When Music Sounds.
At the heart of Rebecca’s first recording is her Materna Requiem – a beautifully moving and uplifting tribute to her late mother, who died in 2010. The work draws from both the traditional text of the Catholic Mass and contemporary poetry and is a homage to parents everywhere. It features the voices of soprano Louise Alder, tenor Trystan Griffiths and young choristers Hannah Dienes-Williams and Edward Hyde (BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year 2016) alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The work will receive its world premiere performance at The North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph Cathedral on 22nd September.
Rebecca Dale says of the album: “It’s an amazing feeling to be releasing my first album and sharing my music with everyone. The Requiem is a very personal piece to me, and it uses melodies I wrote when I was a child so you could say I’ve been working on it for most of my life! When I first wrote the Requiem I didn’t even realise it would receive a performance so it’s a hugely exciting moment to hear it on record, and I hope the piece connects with people.”
The first track from Rebecca’s new album, ‘Pie Jesu’, is out now and expresses a parent’s love for their son or daughter – so instead of using a child’s voice as is tradition for this movement, it’s represented as a father singing to his newborn.
The process of writing the Materna Requiem has been somewhat cathartic for Rebecca – she describes the musical tribute to her mother as “a way for me to build a bridge back to her”. Rebecca is keen to help others who have suffered the loss of a parent and is a supporter of Winston’s Wish – the UK’s first childhood bereavement charity. Donation buckets will be available at the premiere performance of the work, plus Rebecca will be taking part in ‘TrekFest’ for the charity.
Rebecca’s work first came to public attention when BBC Radio 3 premiered her choral symphony ‘When Music Sounds’ in 2014 and the track, ‘I’ll Sing’, went to No.1 on the Classical iTunes chart. It seems fitting that the whole piece is recorded on her debut album. Performed by the Cantus Ensemble – one of London’s leading chamber choirs – this inspiring orchestral work is a glorious counterpart to the Requiem and concludes the album in stunning style. ---prestomusic.com
The young British composer Rebecca Dale has emerged from a career in film music into major stardom. She is among the few composers signed to major labels under their own names, and the first such woman on Decca's roster. In the main work, Requiem for My Mother (or, as she has it in the interior material, Materna Requiem), Dale recalls her own mother, who died of breast cancer in 2010, but also mothers in general, and the notes provide a reasonably detectable narrative for each movement. The Kyrie, for instance, is said to represent the bargaining stage families experience after a cancer diagnosis. The strength of her music is that it at times leaves questions unanswered. Dale may recall John Rutter in her orientation toward poetry; she combines it with the Latin requiem mass text in the Requiem for My Mother and a shorter work, When Music Sounds, consists entirely of choral settings of poetry, some of it Dale's own. But her style is closer to that of Karl Jenkins than Rutter: it is broad and grand. The field is wide open for another composer working in this general crossover idiom, but Dale's music may appeal beyond the usual British crossover outlets. You couldn't say they get top billing, but the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kantos Chamber Choir under Clark Rundell approach their tasks with both enthusiasm and precision. ---James Manheim, AllMusic Review
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