Andrew Lloyd Webber - Requiem / Domingo, Brightman, ECO, Maazel
Before Andrew Lloyd Webber's seemingly endless run of Broadway shows, when he was known  primarily forJesus Christ Superstar, he managed to write this dramatic, tuneful, occasionally  powerful religious work. Although Lloyd Webber takes some liberties with the text and organization of the  traditional Requiem mass, the result is a unified and finely crafted composition. There are exciting  moments in the "Dies irae" and in the "Lacrymosa", where voices and orchestra are  most effectively used to convey the desperate yet hopeful feeling of the text. This work isn't performed  much these days in its entirety, but, as in many of Lloyd Webber's musicals, it produced a "hit"  tune--the "Pie Jesu"--whose popularity alone could have kept the composer living comfortably  for the rest of his life.--David Vernier