Fauré's Requiem
Season
2023/2024
Sacred music
La musique sacrée de l’époque romantique visite les extrêmes du sentiment religieux, de la joie la plus spontanée à l’introspection la plus réfléchie. Au sérieux du Requiem répondent des messes solennelles exubérantes, comme le montrent Hervé Niquet et son Concert Spirituel dans ce programme français.
Cast
With
Jean-Christophe Lanièce Baritone-Bass
Hervé Niquet Musical direction
Solenne Guilbert 1st violin & concertmaster
François Saint-Yves Organist
Le Concert Spirituel Choir et Orchestra
Programme
>> Large cast version (big organ)
Charles Gounod
Messe de Clovis : Kyrie - Gloria
Alexandre Guilmant
O Salutaris
Charles Gounod
Messe de Clovis : Credo
Louis Aubert
O Salutaris
Charles Gounod
Messe de Clovis : Sanctus - Benedictus
André Caplet
Adagio pour violon et orgue
Charles Gounod
Messe de Clovis : Agnus Dei
Théodore Dubois
Benedicat vobis
>> Small cast version (positive organ)
Théodore Dubois
Benedicat vobis en si bémol majeur
Camille Saint-Saëns
Tantum ergo en mi bémol majeur
O Salutaris en la bémol majeur
Offertoire pour la Toussaint en fa majeur
Charles Gounod
Elévation en si mineur
Léo Delibes
Ave Maris stella en sol mineur
Camille Saint-Saëns
O Salutaris en mi majeur
Ave Verum en ré majeur
Théodore Dubois
Ave Maria en sol majeur
Méditation-Prière op. 17 en ré majeur
Alexandre Guilmant
O Salutaris op. 37 en mi mineur
Intermission
Gabriel Fauré
Requiem (based on the 1893 version)
Production
Produced by Le Concert Spirituel, based on an idea by Palazzetto Bru Zane.
Duration
1h50
with intermission
Photo credit
Richard Cannon
Additional information
Two visions of the sacred repertoire in France at the end of the 19th century.
"Mon requiem a été composée pour rien....pour le plaisir, si je puis dire..." (My requiem was composed for nothing....for pleasure, if I may say so...) is how Gabriel Fauré described his Requiem, probably one of his best-known and most frequently performed scores today.
The idea of pleasure may seem incongruous in the context of a mass for the dead, but the musician saw it as a release, almost a moment of happiness, at least spiritual. And this is perhaps the secret of his success to this day, in the warm, lush sound that lifts the spirit.
Throughout his career, Gounod composed nearly twenty sacred works, most of them in the form of a mass or oratorio. The so-called Messe de Clovis is almost contemporary with Fauré's Requiem, but in a completely different spirit. Here the musician returns to the neo-Renaissance style already present in earlier pieces. An 'historicising' style, to be sure, but one that Gounod mastered.