Our May 11, 2024 concert will be dedicated to the one-hundredth anniversary of the life of Gabriel Fauré, the French composer who bridged the nineteenth to the twentieth century with a musical style that was fairly consistent throughout his life characterized by beautiful melodies, smooth textures and rich harmonies while hinting at the harmonic shifts to come in the twentieth century.
The concert will feature his ever-popular Requiem plus the Cantique de Jean Racine, Madrigal and Pavane. The last two works are rarely heard and are representative of Fauré’s style which featured the beauty of the song material of the late nineteenth century along with rich harmonic shifts suggestive of the musical impressionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Requiem has taken its place as one of the finest ever written and most frequently performed in the twentieth century thanks to its approachable lines and rich textures. Singing the Requiem is like singing an art song written for a choir.
The Chorale will be joined by a string ensemble and harp to further enrich the rich melodic flow of Fauré’s music. Our soprano soloist, Kim Smith, will be featured in the Requiem as well as presenting a selection of Fauré’s art song repertoire to give us a taste of his secular artistry which is matchless.
