Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, Op. 48 opens with an unsmiling D spread out in octaves across the orchestra. Grave and unquestioning, it doesn't ask for your attention - it just takes it. But the composition ...

‘The human soul dreams of being cradled like a child’ — Fauré’s Requiem offers a radiant and tender vision of heaven, comforting audiences far beyond the composer’s original Parisian congregation.

The Music: Fauré noted that his requiem was ‘composed for nothing... for fun’. The loss of his parents may have conditioned his outlook while creating the score’s first version during 1887-88. But the ...