26 May 2018

DURUFLÉ: Requiem

From Music Alive, 8:00 pm on 26 May 2018
Maurice Duruflé

Maurice Duruflé Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Requiem is French composer Maurice Duruflé’s most substantial and most famous work. He composed it in 1947 at the end of Second World War, and like Fauré in his Requiem, Duruflé chose to break away from the operatic and highly dramatic Requiem settings favoured by Berlioz and Verdi. Instead of visions of hell and damnation, Duruflé focuses on images of rest and peace, including beautiful settings of the Pie Jesu and In Paradisum texts.

All nine movements of Duruflé’s Requiem draw on Gregorian chant melodies from the 'Mass for the Dead' which he infuses with his own sensuous harmonies. Duruflé explains: “This Requiem is not an ethereal work which sings of detachment from human concerns. It reflects, in the unchanging form of Christian prayer, the anguish of man faced with the mystery of his end.”

This performance is special in that, according to conductor Kenneth Young, this is the first time the Requiem was performed in New Zealand with Duruflé’s original orchestration. This calls for a large orchestra including triple woodwinds, full brass ensemble, several percussionists, organ and strings.

Recorded 26 May 2018, Wellington Cathedral of St Paul by RNZ Concert

Producer: David McCaw

Engineer: Darryl Stack

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