A new one Requiem by Fauré in its original version without violins, it is necessarily interesting. With Hervé Niquet and Le Concert spirituel, it is not going to be all-comers, the conductor being known for shaking things up, with his very lively tempos. Sometimes, he goes too far, as in his German Requiem Brahms on CD or in concert, The Childhood of Christ at the OSM. Here, the less than warm musician pushes the envelope, but just not too far. The first distinctive sign of his Fauré is the clarity and mastery of the pronunciation choices of Gallican Latin, which was current in 1893 (“Sanctus” and not “Sanctous”, “Jésu” and not “Yézou”). The second is obviously the musical advance, which turns its back on an old, candied tradition. The third is due to the numbers, more of a chapel than a large church, a format to which the soloists agree. To reinforce the interest of the publication, Niquet reveals the intense Clovi’s Masss written by Gounod in an interesting neo-Renaissance style, a O Salutaris of Aubert and a Adagio instrumental by Caplet.
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