Roman Maciejewski - Requiem Missa Pro Defunctis (rec. 1989)

Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998), although born in Berlin and resident for much of his later life in Sweden, was a lesser-known Polish composer.  So in an attempt to make him a little less lesser-known over this Easter weekend, here's his most major work, a post-war requiem mass.  The album cover, only used for this original double-CD edition, is fitting: it's that famously haunting image of the shelling of the Prudential building during the Warsaw Uprising, August 1944.

The second world war added a graveness to Maciejewski's character and outlook, leading to solemn and dignified music like this.  The Requiem was worked on from 1945 and finally finished in 1959, by which time it could be seen as a precedent to some of Arvo Pärt's later choral/orchestral work.  There's a lot of ostinato repetition that gives the work a gently melancholic, meditative and hypnotic effect, especially in its early sections.  This can then feel a little overpowered by the sheer size (it's longer than everything else) and weightiness of the Dies Irae section that Maciejewski ends with, but there's a nice Stravinsky influence here and there, and it's work sticking with to appreciate its power.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg