Dan Forrest (1978-)
Requiem for the living

Anna Oginska, soprano
Wiktoria Zawistowska, mezzo-soprano
Rafal Majzner, ténor
Chœur de l'Université de Bialsko-Biala
Orchestre de Chambre de Silésie
Jan Borowski, direction

Composed in 2013, Requiem for the Living by Dan Forrest was commissioned by the Hickory North Carolina Choral Society to commemorate the 35th anniversary of its artistic activity. The premiere of the piece met with approval of music critic John W. Lambert, who drew attention to, among others, the numerous ingenious rhythmic solutions used in the composition. While writing Requiem, Forrest also made some innovations including the verbal layer. In addition to Latin texts, traditional for the funeral mass, the composer introduces mass quotes, usually not appearing in the traditional requiem, as well as short fragments from books of the Old Testament (e.g. from the Book of Job). This album covers a complete performance of the aforementioned composition, which is one of the first Polish studio performances of the American artist’s music.