Missa da Requiem / Te Deum 1975

The Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister holds an important position in the musical history of our century as a significant composer of operas. Sutermeister's numerous religious works are among the most important of those independent and highly individual works written in our century which present a broad humanism against a religious background. Sutermeister found his way in the "Missa da Requiem" to a formal structure of his own. The orchestration is appropriate to the text. Retraint and outburst are juxtaposed according to the requirements of the mood. The "Te Deum 1975" represents an extension of the "Missa da Requiem". It is a music based on an extended concept of tonality, which unfolds mood, atmosphere, and an appropriate representation of the meaning of the text.