Christopher Tyler Nickel – Requiem
Catherine Redding; Northwest Sinfonia and Choir; Clyde Mitchell
Avie Records AV2659 (avie-records.com)
Vancouverite Christopher Tyler Nickel has composed over 100 scores for theatre, film and TV, as well as symphonies, concertos, chamber works and a seven-hour-long (!) oratorio, a complete setting of The Gospel According to Mark. His Requiem (2019), lasting “only” 70 minutes, here receives an emotionally stirring performance from Canadian soprano Catherine Redding and the Northwest Sinfonia and Choir conducted by Claude Mitchell.
It’s scored for a dark-sounding chamber orchestra of oboe, English horn, two French horns and strings; “I wanted to keep a solemnity to the Requiem,” writes Nickel. The choral writing largely avoids rhythmic counterpoint, embracing instead “homorhythm” – all voices in rhythmic unison, creating a sense of granite-like solidity. The music varies in character, each of the 19 sections, says Nickel, having its own “overarching emotion.” He’s drawn from stylistic sources ranging from the austerity of Gregorian chant, in the opening Introitus and Kyrie, to the urgent expressivity of late-Romanticism.
The gently supplicating lyricism of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem predominates in nine of the sections, while the syncopated, motoric dynamism of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana energizes the Dies Irae, Confutatis and Responsorium. Brucknerian grandeur magnifies the Tuba Mirum; the Offertorium sounds like a sentimental folk-ballad.
Nevertheless, there’s an overall unity to this beauty-filled music, thanks to Nickel’s distinctive melodic gift. As a chorister, I’ve sung in Requiems by Mozart, Cherubini, Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé; I’d love to be able to add Nickel’s to this list.
