A programme of glorious French music by Gabriel Fauré and Louis Vierne. We are delighted to be joined by two local students as our soloists: Attia Law, our soprano soloist, is a pupil at Sheringham High School and also a member of the North Norfolk Youth Chorus based at Sheringham Little Theatre. Jack Woodward, a student at Cromer Academy will be the Baritone soloist.
One of the most popular works in the choral repertoire, first performed in 1888, Fauré wrote of his Requiem, “Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.”
Fauré was a precociously brilliant composer. By his late teens, he had already developed his own unique and utterly assured musical voice. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in his Cantique de Jean Racine. Composed in 1865, when Fauré was just twenty, it’s very much a precursor to the Requiem, with similarly lush, intense choral writing layered on top of sparse organ accompaniment. As with the Requiem, it takes a religious text as its inspiration – in this case, words by the French playwright Jean Racine.
Louis Vierne is best known for his organ works. However his Messe Solennelle, which was first performed at Saint-Sulpice in Paris in December 1901, is a wonderful choral piece. Although originally scored for two pipe organs, it was later adapted for a single organ, as most churches could not provide two such instruments.
Our image shows the great organ at Saint-Sulpice, where the mass was first performed.
Repertoire
Messe Solennelle – Louis Vierne
Cantique de Jean Racine – Gabriel Urbain Fauré
Requiem – Gabriel Urbain Fauré
