ANTÓNIO PINHO VARGAS (b.1951): Requiem, Judas (secundum Lucam, Johannem, Matthaeum et Marcum).

Description: The Requiem is, by the composer's own admission, an essay in continuing and 'answering' the impressive tradition of such works. The work is an impressive, large-scale setting of the composer's chosen texts from the Mass, with (something of a novelty these days) no extraneous material, in full-blooded choral and orchestral textures, without soloists, and a largely tonal, neo-romantic idiom. Judas sets the New Testament texts, in Latin, to present the tragedy of the irredeemable traitor whose actions formed an essential part of Christ's glory as a human drama, highly emotional and expressive, more operatic than liturgical in style. Again, the language is relatively conservative - somewhat less so than the Requiem - the canvas large and powerfully dramatic, an impression heightened by the use of specific choral sections rather than soloists for the words of Judas and Jesus. Texts available on-line. Gulbenkian Chorus and Orchestra; Joana Carneiro, Fernando Eldoro (Judas).