we.w
e o P
GUILDFORD
1
}
0A
BRI N R
R
Hugo Cole
Blacher
i
requiem
BORIS BLACHER, who died
.
-
three vears ago, has not gone
out of fashion because he
was never in fashion, London
has forgotten him, and it
'
the 75th
eWD ~ Vernon Handley to celebrate
was left to Guildford and to
anuniversary of
his
~o(T . hirth with the first Fnglish
serformance of his Requiem.
| lach
-+ is a sort of Bauhaus
composer-—~the
architecture of
contrapuntal
his Requiem
is as clear, clean and funct
ional as that of Swiss or Ger-
man .
churchesof
the
Twenties and Thirties. The
outer sections are cool yet
sensuous iny their sparing use
of widely-spaced sounds. The
.
-
vigorous strength of the big
central movements can
plainly
a?vreciaied
Civic
Hall,
the
Festival
be
in
the
where music is
dissected out as clearly
as at
Hall.
;
Once or twice, and particu-
: Jarly in the Amen section of
the Dies Irae, Blacher’'s skill
leads him to spin- out maaerial to dangerous lengths.
But his patterping of in- !
dependent
against
sionally
soctions—chorus |
orchestra, or occachorus
against
chorus—holds
our
attention
and compels our admiration.
He compliments soloists and
chorus by sending them on
their separate ways, hardly
ever
supported
orchestra,
n
general.
the
choir
seemed to have got hold of |
the essence of the work, but
were still worried by some of
their exposed
entries,
inwhich
action
spirits.
they
hy
the
were
a
few
soloists
led
into
bolder
(Vivien
Townley and Iarf Caddy and
.
orchestra. havdly missed
a
trick. This is a requiem in
prose rather than in poetry
but, as in Bach, there is deep
. and sincere feeling expressed
. through fine ¢raftemanship.
i A worthwhile revival of a
. work that should never have
.
lapsed from the repertory.