This Requiem in C Major is Charles Gounod's last work, written in memory of one of his grandsons, who died in 1889. Feeling his strength diminishing, the old composer may also have written it with his own impending death in mind. As he was rehearsing for its first performance, Gounod was taken ill after singing the Benedictus in duet with his daughter.
It is a luminous work, full of sweetness and peace, in a serene ambience which is close to that of the Requiem that Fauré had written a few years earlier. On this record, Michel Corboz uses Henri Büsser's adaptation for string quintet, harp and strings, for an intimate and interior feel, while deploying Gounod's melodic flights which were all his own, the fruit of a career writing many religious works. The author of adozen operas, he composed a good thirty masses, six requiems, oratorios, motets and cantatas. The Messe en sol mineur chorale sur l’intonation de la liturgie catholique in G Minor, first performed in 1888, is a substantial work, probably written after a meeting in Angers between Gounod and dom Joseph Pothier, the writer of a learned work dedicated to Gregorian melodies. Constructed on the basis of several liturgical themes, this Mass aims to unite Palestrinian purity with the radiant lyricism of Mozart, who was a second God to Gounod. © François Hudry/Qobuz