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What distinguishes Fauré's Requiem from numerous other settings of the requiem text is it's rather intimate, restrained, almost chamber-music nature, a Inchlullaby of deathInch, as it has also been called, initially more as a criticism of a work that for most of the time avoids depicting the dread of death and the Last Judgement. Fauré's reply InchBut this is how I feel about death as a happy liberation, as a striving for happiness in the hereafter rather than as a painful transitionInch, not only perfectly describes essential characteristics of his Requiem, but also reveals it to be a very personal expression of the composer's very own artistic nature.Two generations after Fauré (and Fauré's grand-disciple through his teacher Koechlin), Francis Poulenc's (1899-1963) displayed a significantly different approach to religion. Poulenc, who like Fauré was from the southern part of France, had been shaped by his homeland in the sense of a 'rural', intense but joyous Catholicism. He regarded his Gloria as a more joyful counterpart to some of his other sacred works, and it is in this spirit that the first movement, begins in a festive mood with a striking, fanfare-like motif in the full orchestra. If Poulenc cited Gozzoli frescoes with monks sticking out their tongues and Benedictine monks playing football as the source of inspiration for his Gloria, then nowhere is this more immediately comprehensible than in the second movement, with it's rhythmically pointed Laudamus te, of the choir. In both the opera house, and concert hall, Prêtre's interpretations were notable for their full-blooded and highly romantic character; in style, they were often different from those of French conductors of the previous generation. He was an effective conductor not only of the French repertoire, but also of the music of Italy, and Germany, a fact reflected by the admiration in which he was h
