Alto: Sara Mingardo
Tenor: Werner Güra
Bass-Baritone: Christopher Purves
Choir: Accentus
Orchestra: Insula Orchestra
Conductor: Laurence Equilbey
Date:
Venue: Château de Versailles
Cat No.: V5370
Released: September 29, 2014
From a musical point of view, this has to be considered a success. Accentus is a very fine choir, and they are the star of the show. I’ve never heard of the Insula Orchestra, they play well enough. They also understand that this is not their show, too. Herbert von Karajan always put his Berlin (and sometimes Vienna) forces front and center in this work, a mistake considering how little the orchestra actually does. Insula is a period-instrument group, although figuring that out is another silly chore on the listeners’ part. I will say that they seem to have genuine weight, and aren’t a negative in any way.
But this is about the singing, and Laurence Equilbey directs a flowing and very beautiful performance. The choral sound is beyond reproach, and the men are especially impressive. All the soloists are fine, although I find tenor Werner Güra a little too taxed by his parts for comfortable listening. But no one should downgrade a great Requiem based on a tenor soloist, and the issues of packaging and notation are far more troubling to me. Still, this is pretty wonderful.
— Brian Wigman, Classical Net [2004]