Requiem de Fauré

Fauré's Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, by Gabriel Fauré, written in the full maturity of his career, is one of his best-known works. It was premièred on 16 January 1888 in the church of La Madeleine.

This Mass for the dead is considered one of Fauré's masterpieces and one of the most beautiful requiems of the 19th century. The work, whose writing is very personal, contains several pieces that rank among the most moving in Western choral music. The Cantique de Jean Racine, Op.

11, is a vocal piece composed in 1865 by Gabriel Fauré, then aged 19. Written for choir (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) with piano or organ, this piece is in the key of D flat major. After an introduction played on the piano (or organ), the choir enters section by section.

At bar forty, after an instrumental bridge, a modulating central section arrives in A flat major (then B flat minor), where the work reaches its highest expressive peak. Through a slow and solemn return, the piece then moves back towards its initial character.

There exists a version for choir, harmonium and string quintet (1866) and a version for choir and orchestra (1906). Dedicated to César Franck, the score won the first composition prize at the leaving examination of the Niedermeyer School in Paris, which Fauré attended as a pupil.

The Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, known as the Eroica, Op. 55, is one of the most significant works of Ludwig van Beethoven. Composed between 1803 and 1804, it was first performed publicly on 7 April 1805 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

Initially dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, the symphony had its dedication withdrawn when he proclaimed himself emperor. Beethoven then dedicated it to the memory of “a great man”, before formally dedicating it to his patron, Prince Lobkowitz.

Through its unprecedented scale, expressive force and heroic ideal, the Eroica marks a major break with classicism and heralds the advent of musical Romanticism.