As darkness now falls earlier each day, it can be difficult to imagine the eventual and uplifting return of spring. Whether we’re thinking of those we’ve lost, or are just reflecting on the cycles of life, a Requiem is a powerful focus for emotion and contemplation.
=0D=0A=The Victoria Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Peter Butterfield, opens its season with Requiem by two French organ virtuosos - Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé.
=0D=0A=The performance includes soprano soloist Rachel Allen, baritone Andrew Greenwood, organist Michael Molnar, and a chamber orchestra. Fauré composed the first version of his Requiem in the late 1880s and revised and enlarged it over the next decade. Duruflé`s setting has a more complex history; it is believed to have been commissioned in 1941 by the collaborationist Vichy regime in France, but Duruflé only finished it after the war was over, and dedicated it to the memory of his father. His Requiem weaves traditional Gregorian chant with shimmering harmonies of both simple and dense beauty. Unlike the earlier well-known settings of Requiem by Mozart and Verdi, Fauré and Duruflé leave out the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) movement of the Catholic Mass, leaving us with two works of relative quiet and of great contemplative beauty.
=0D=0A=Tickets are $25 regular, $15 for students, and free for children age 12 & under. They’re available from Ivy’s Bookshop, Munro’s Books, Tanner’s Books, the Shieling, and Long & McQuade, and online at vpchoir.ca.
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