The French Connection
An evening of choral and organ works by French composers
Four wonderful works make up a concert of truly evocative music from France that will appeal to new listeners as well as to old hands. Sheffield Bach Choir will sing the Duruflé Requiem, almost certainly a memorial to the composer’s father, bristling with emotion, passion and harmony of the richest imaginable, but also haunting, especially in the pure simplicity of the chant lines.
The brilliant opening of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto is as exuberant as the final pages are sensual, recalling Poulenc’s grief at the sudden death of a very close friend in a motoring accident a year or two earlier. The Bach Choir is thrilled to feature Thomas Corns, the Cathedral's new organist and chorus master, to play this beautiful work.
The choir will also sing Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine accompanied by harp and lower strings, and Poulenc’s exquisite Salve Regina, written in 1941 during the darkest days of the Second World War and inscribed to two of Poulenc’s very closest friends.
Performers
Sheffield Bach Choir (Choir), National Festival Orchestra (Orchestra), Thomas Corns (Organist), Joanna Gamble (Mezzo Soprano) and Thomas Asher (Baritone)
Programme
- Duruflé: Requiem
- Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine
- Poulenc: Salve Regina
- Poulenc: Organ Concerto
