Twenty years ago, the Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga made a beautiful requiem on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the flood disaster: The Flood, Requiem. Now reissued, the work of Eisenga, the Zeeuws Orkest and the Zeeuws Philharmonisch Koor continues to impress.

As epic a pitch as The Flood, Requiem in places rises to, there are also moments of delicacy, the first half of Kyrie / Lux Aeterna and the artful Requiem Aeternam two prime examples. 

The score never stays in one place for long as Eisenga presents an ever-stimulating and ever-evolving panorama of vocal and instrumental sound.

An orchestra that plays inaudibly. A tide that ripples like on a beautiful summer day. But the silence of the sea is apparent. Her silence hides the unease that will fill her with the coming spring tide and the continuing northwesterly storms. A tension that builds up in the orchestra and moves towards increasingly fierce rhythms and climaxes.

In its often elegiac atmosphere, Eisenga's Requiem is reminiscent of Fauré's mildness, in musical style, with its appealing rhythm and instrumentation (percussion), it regularly creates a kind of cross-pollination between Carl Orff and the minimalist Philip Glass. 

"His immediately convincing Requiem combines the Latin tradition with modern texts and recognizable, sometimes medieval musical forms. With a wealth of effective contrasts and relief in this music, The Flood is an enchanting requiem".

"This composition testifies of an unprecedented mysticism. The Flood can now already be labelled as one of the greatest compositions of this time."