Fauré : Requiem

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Requiem Saturday, November 28, 7 PM Chapelle Royale Duration: 1h15 without intermission Among the sacred works that have established themselves in the repertoire, Fauré's Requiem holds a unique place.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Requiem

Saturday, November 28, 7 PM

Chapelle Royale

Duration: 1h15 without intermission

Among the sacred works that have established themselves in the repertoire, Fauré's Requiem holds a unique place. Far from the operatic or thunderous requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, or Verdi, this is an intimate score, with modest means, but possessing a distinctly French charm. Fauré clearly did not wish to outdo his glorious predecessors, but rather to align with his time, when Parisian piety aimed to be accessible to the faithful, and he undoubtedly falls more in line with the recent requiems of Liszt and Saint-Saëns. First performed at La Madeleine in 1888, for a New Year's Eve ceremony for an architect, this work, which (falsely) plays on intimacy, quickly achieved considerable concert success. "My Requiem, it has been said that it does not express the terror of death; someone called it a lullaby of death. But this is how I feel death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration to the happiness of the beyond, rather than as a painful passage. " More than a hundred years after Gabriel Fauré's passing, it is only right to perform his most emblematic sacred work: the Requiem he presented at La Madeleine for the Centenary of Louis XVI's execution, on January 21, 1893. This was followed by numerous performances worldwide, and often expanded versions for concert halls. For this inspired Requiem, Victor Jacob has decided to perform the "church" version with a chamber orchestra (without violins but with violas!), replicating the 1893 arrangement. He completes the program with spiritual works by Rossini, Schubert, and Brahms, wonderfully highlighting the choristers, whom Fauré, as Maître de Chapelle of La Madeleine, particularly cherished. The Choir and Orchestra of the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles weave a sublime setting for this bouquet of masterpieces…