Concerts
John Rutter’s Requiem
Unlike the dramatic, large-scale Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi, Rutter’s setting belongs in the smaller-scale, more devotional tradition of Fauré and Duruflé. The choral forces do not need to be large, there is only one soloist, the instrumentation is restrained, the duration less than forty minutes. As with Fauré and Duruflé, the Latin text of the Missa pro defunctis is not set in its entirety, the chosen portions being those which underline a theme of light and consolation emerging out of darkness and despair; and as with more than one twentieth-century Requiem, vernacular texts are interwoven with the traditional Latin. There are two psalms associated with the rite of burial, the sombre De profundis (Psalm 130) and the serenely confident Psalm 23, each of these settings having an important part for a solo instrument, cello and oboe respectively. In addition, movements 5 and 7 incorporate sentences from the Anglican Burial Service, in the incomparably magnificent English of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The complete seven-movement work forms an arch-like structure: the first and last movements are prayers to God the Father, movements 2 and 6 are psalms, 3 and 5 are prayers to Christ the Son, and the central Sanctusis an affirmation of divine glory.
The occasion of a Requiem is one for reflection and looking back, and, like a number of composers in their Requiem settings, Rutter pays homage to his predecessors – influences including Fauré, Mahler, Howells and Gershwin can be detected, along with the use of Gregorian chant at two key points in the work – but out of these disparate elements a synthesis emerges which has been widely recognized as the composer’s own.
LOUISE LUEGNER johnrutter.com/programme-notes
Mozart, Laudate Dominum
In 1781, the 49-year-old Haydn met the 25-year-old Mozart, declared him the “greatest living composer” and became one of his most devoted friends. In the previous year, Mozart had written his Solemn Vespers K. 339 including the beautiful Laudate Dominum (Praise the Lord) for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra. The strings, floating above a lilting accompaniment, give this work an atmosphere of great peace and tranquillity.
Cantique de Jean Racine (Op. 11) is a work for mixed chorus and piano or organ by Gabriel Fauré. Written by the nineteen year old composer in 1864-5, the piece won Fauré the first prize when he graduated from the École Niedermeyer and was first performed the following year on August 4, 1866, with accompaniment of strings and organ. It was first published around 1875 or 1876 (Schoen, Paris, as part of the series Echo des Maîtrises) and appeared in a version for orchestra (possibly by the composer) in 1906. The accompaniment has also been arranged for strings and harp by John Rutter.
