Swiss composer Carl Rütti has made a specialty of choral and liturgical music, and his work has been performed extensively by British ensembles like the BBC Singers, Cambridge Voices, and the Bach Choir, which commissioned and here performs his 2007 Requiem, scored for soprano, baritone, double choir, strings, and organ. Rütti's Requiem reflects his close connection with the British choral tradition without sounding derivative of any particular composer. He is an eclectic, and it is possible to detect his familiarity with ...
Read More
Swiss composer Carl Rütti has made a specialty of choral and liturgical music, and his work has been performed extensively by British ensembles like the BBC Singers, Cambridge Voices, and the Bach Choir, which commissioned and here performs his 2007 Requiem, scored for soprano, baritone, double choir, strings, and organ. Rütti's Requiem reflects his close connection with the British choral tradition without sounding derivative of any particular composer. He is an eclectic, and it is possible to detect his familiarity with Britten, as well the harmonic and melodic world of John Rutter (although his work is more sophisticated than Rutter's), and there's a hint of Arvo Pärt's austerity in some of the quieter moments, and in Rütti's unashamed use of pure consonance. While the Requiem essentially holds together, the stylistic differences between movements, some as simple as folk song, and some of considerable harmonic and rhythmic complexity, keep the piece from sounding like the work of a composer who has...
Read Less
