Daniël de Lange - Requiem

A quote from the booklet about the title track of this album, Daniël de Lange’s “Requiem”:

“The Requiem could, without exaggeration, be considered a monument of nineteenth-century a capella choral music (…). Encapsulated in the Requiem are a wide range of expressive qualities and moods, making the text portrayal exceptionally suggestive”.

Nice qualifications for a Dutch late 19th C. composer. The requiem was rediscovered in 1972 by one Willem Noske, who made a thorough study of it; previously, it hadn’t seen too many performances, and the manuscript of the piece lay gathering dust in a museum of some kind.
At first one would think the requiem is an exponent of 16th and 17th C. choral singing. However, it’s the above-mentioned ‘wide range of expressive qualities and moods’ (especially in the ‘Dies Irae’, tr. 3) which give it away as a romantic composition of later date. In earlier periods human emotionality emanating from the vocal music itself was not common practice, as you know.
Alphons Diepenbrock and Julius Röntgen also appear on this disc. When I heard the latter’s motets, I had associations with Ton de Leeuw’s choral music. Less modern of course, but there’s something about the close harmony singing in these pieces which makes me suspect de Leeuw knew Röntgen’s music well. Not surprising; Röntgen was one of the founding fathers, and director of, the Amsterdam conservatory (1883), the same academy where de Leeuw became director in 1959.
It’s a small world – in a small country.

Performers: Netherlands Chamber Choir, Uwe Gronostay

tracks:

Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921)
1. Caelestis Urbs Jerusalem

Daniël de Lange (1841-1918)
Requiem
2. Requiem
3. Dies Irae
4. Offertorium
5. Sanctus - Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei

Julius Röntgen (1855-1932)
Motetten
7. Wider de Frieden. Klage-, Anklage- und Trostgesang
8. Gleichwie die grünen Blätter auf einem schönen Baum
9. Kommt her zu mir, alle die ihr mein begeeret