Andrew Lloyd Webber: Requiem

A Requiem from the composer of Cats, Evita, Starlight Express? The change of direction is less violent tan it might appear at first sight. In many ways this Requiem marks for Andrew Lloyd Webber a return to the musical surroundings in which he grew up.

School was at Westminster, just across the road from London's Houses of Parliament. Tradition closely linked the school to Westminster Abbey itself and in Lloyd Webber's day attendance at certain church services was obligatory. But, even more important, the Abbey was there at hand with occasions that were not obligatory for the Westminster pupils. Lloyd Webber recalls going to the impressive memorial service held for Ralph Vaghan Williams and also, as a thirteen-year old, crossing the Abbey yard through a thick fog for the first London performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, probably the last major, popular piece in the oratorio tradition to have been composed in England.

Two events set the Requiem in motion. the first was the death of A.L. Webber's father in 1982 and the second was a story about Cambodia in an obscure corner of the N.Y. Times, concerning a boy who was faced with the choice of killing his sister or being killed himself...

See booklet for details.

Tracklist

1. Requiem and Kyrie (6:39)
2. Dies irae... Rex tremendae (6:00)
3. Recordare (3:21)
4. Ingemisco... Lacrymosa (7:40)
5. Offertorium (5:19)
6. Hosanna (4:51)
7. Pie Jesu (3:53)
8. Lux aeterna and Libera me (7:29)

Performing: Plácido Domingo (tenor) Sarah Brightman (soprano) Paul Miles-Kingston (treble)
Winchester Cathedral Choir (director Martin Neary)
English Chamber Orchestra
James Lancelot (organ)
Conductor: Lorin Maazel