Stanfordian Thoughts
A periodical series of reflections on recorded and unrecorded works by Charles Villiers Stanford
by Christopher Howell

26. The Requiem in Chicago

Stanford’s Requiem has been in the news recently after the issue of a second recording under Martyn Brabbins. This marked, by general consent, an improvement on the already very satisfactory version conducted by Adrian Leaper. The Requiem was completed on 1 September 1896 and first performed at the Birmingham Festival on 6 October 1897. Both Hudson and Smith note that it achieved a well-received performance in Düsseldorf in 1905. Smith also describes the first London performance, by Royal Academy students under Mackenzie in December 1897, and what he believes to have been the third performance, by the Bach Choir under Stanford himself in March 1898. But Chicago? It was with considerable amazement that I stumbled upon the following …

Read the full article in pdf format here. A link list for the previous articles in this series is provided here.