Blood and thunder rating
‘I think it has to be Brahms,’ replies composer Michael John Trotta, when asked by BBC Music to name his favourite Requiem. ‘It’s partly to do with how he brought the language into the vernacular and included additional texts. And then there’s that ticking at the beginning – “bom, bom, bom” – along with the vulnerability of the viola. I also remember singing the “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place” movement as a schoolboy and feeling enveloped by the music’s warm hug!’
But soon afterwards Trotta, who has recently completed his own Requiem (see p48), changes his mind. ‘I wish I had answered Mozart for my favourite Requiem,’ he emails. ‘There’s something about how he both acknowledged and transcended tradition…’
It was, of course, an unfair question. From Dufay and Ockeghem in the 15th century to Karl Jenkins and Rebecca Dale in the 21st, many of music’s most accomplished and popular composers
