Cantatrix
"REMEMBER ME" OKTOBER 2021
Cantatrix
brings in October 2021 a spiritual programme full of extremes with works by Purcell, Bach and Arvo Pärt, among others. The crowning glory of the performance is Fauré's moving, beloved Requiem. A concert for choir, strings, harp and harmonium.
The conductor is Hans Leenders. You will also hear Komm, Jesu, komm by Bach, Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré, followed by a beautiful Salvator mundi by Herbert Howells and `Remember me` (from Dido and Aeneas) by Henry Purcell.
Gabriel Fauré wanted to do something different with his Requiem. To one of his close friends, the famous violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, the composer and organist said: 'After all those years of accompanying funerals on the organ, I knew it all by heart! I wanted to write something different for a change'. That 'something else' was premiered during a church service in the Parisian La Madeleine on 16 January 1888, and was not to everyone's liking. The priest said: 'Mr Fauré, we don't need all these novelties here; the repertoire of La Madeleine is rich enough, just be satisfied with it.
So what were these novelties? What makes Fauré's Requiem different from many other requiem masses is that with Fauré the emphasis is on death as something peaceful. He leaves no room for anger and fear of death. Many requiem masses focus on the Dies irae ('Day of Wrath'), an ominous text about the Day of Judgement. You will not find this part in Fauré's Requiem. However, that is not entirely true. Fauré does use the last words: 'Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem' ('Good Lord Jesus, give them rest'). So it is not fear of death, but rest. In 1920, Fauré further clarified his vision of death: 'This is how I see it: as a joyful redemption, as the prospect of happiness in the hereafter, rather than as a painful transition'. That is why his Requiem has a hopeful, enlightened ending. At the end, the prayer 'In paradisum' sounds, in which the deceased is accompanied by angels to the kingdom of heaven. This addition allowed Fauré to conclude his work with the word that to him was the core of the matter: 'requiem'. Rest.