This long-awaited recording by the foremost interpreter of Maurice Duruflé's music, Dennis Keene, offers not only an unrivalled performance of the beautiful Requiem, but also the first modern orchestral recording of the chant-based Mass.

Keene, whom Marie-Madeleine Duruflé calls the "perfect intepreter of my husband's music," has established his Duruflé credentials in his native land as well, in the years following his 1989 Duruflé Festival in New York City.

Once known and adored only by musicians, the Duruflé Requiem has suddenly become a sure-fire concert sellout piece, with its combination of Gregorian Chant and Monet-like Impressionist harmonies. We suspect that the record world might be about to follow suit. When we included the "Sanctus" from Duruflé's Requiem on the recent Delos Horizons sampler, we were unprepared for the ardent response it aroused, or for the numerous and persistent requests for the complete disc.

The humble, introverted Maurice Duruflé would be totally astonished by the recent upswelling of interest in his Requiem. Perhaps present-day audiences are responding to the way in which Duruflé was able to combine the beautiful things of worldly life with spirituality. His music is ultra-accessible and luxurious but balanced with a profoundly spiritual core.

From an early age, Duruflé was mesmerized by the mystical world of Gregorian chant. At the age of six he became a choirboy at the ancient 12th-century Gothic cathedral in Rouen, where the priests still remembered the artist Claude Monet doing his famous paintings of the cathedral's façade from across the street a decade before.

Dennis Keene's Voices of Ascension had their first spectacular recording success with Beyond Chant, Mysteries of the Renaissance; it was followed by Chant to Renaissance. On Heigh-Ho! Mozart they perform the enchanting "Second Star to the Right in the style of Thomas Tallis."

Complete Contents

1. Requiem, Op. 9 [41:29]
   • I. Introït (3:42)
   • II. Kyrie (4:04)
   • III. Domine Jesu Christe (8:39)
   • IV. Sanctus (3:31)
   • V. Pie Jesu (3:50)
   • VI. Agnus Dei (4:10)
   • VII. Lux æterna (4:26)
   • VIII. Libera me (5:41)
   • IX. In Paradisum (3:26)
2. Messe "Cum Jubilo," Op. 11 [18:51]
   • I. Kyrie (3:10)
   • II. Gloria (5:35)
   • III. Sanctus (3:39)
   • IV. Benedictus (2:13)
   • V. Agnus Dei (4:14)
3. Notre Père (1:29)

• Patricia Spence, mezzo-soprano
• François Le Roux, baritone
• Mark Bleeke, tenor
• Voices of Ascension Chorus & Orchestra
• Dennis Keene, conductor
• Instrumental soloists: Mark Kruczek, organ / Lawrence Dutton, viola / Richard Locker, violoncello / David Jolley, horn / Kathleen Bride, harp

Total playing time: 61:49