In our articles at the www.requiem.fi site we wish to narrow the wide gap in Finnish language information about the requiem genre.
The Requiem Collections of Pentti Kauppi and Pentti Ruokonen
At the very heart of these pages there is the Discography, which covers our two collections of recorded requiems. The collections are the results of decades worth of work and enthusiasm.
At first, we collected requiems separately, without any knowledge of each other. For a few years now, we have built up our collections together. The discography details our collections.
The majority of our combined collection comes in the CD format. There is also a separate list of the most important items in Pentti Kauppi’s collection in LP format, some of which are not available as CDs at all.
The CD era has brought into the market several previously unknown requiem composers and their very interesting works between the 16th and 19th centuries. At the same time, the marketing of records has become more efficient. The internet has replaced the massive printed catalogues as the main source of information.
Networking
The Requiem is a vital genre of music. This millennium has already seen 300 new compositions of this genre. Both composing and collecting are global activities. One immense source into the world of Requiem is the site compiled by the Dutch rector Kees van der Vloed at www.requiemsurvey.org The visitor count at his site has exceeded 3 million. Vloed’s site introduces about 3000 requiem composers, and more than 5000 masses. It has been an indispensable help also for us while tracing the recorded requiems.
Collecting has benefited from networking long time before the internet: we have contacted several publishers all over the world, and mail-order companies both in Europe and in the USA in our search for recorded requiems. Martti Kilpeläinen, the cantor of Vihti parish in Finland, deserves a special acknowledgement. He has organised and directed the Finnish premieres of two remarkable requiems. Among other things, his own foreign acquisitions of records has been an inspiration for us discophiles.
Contact us
We can be contacted by email at adminwww.requiem.fi