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Gabriel Fauré's sublime Requiem

Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D Minor, (Op. 48) between 1887 and 1890. The Requiem is the best known of his large works. Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, "just as Mozart's is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu."

Fauré's reasons for composing his Requiem are uncertain. One possible impetus may have been the death of Fauré's father in 1885, and his mother's death two years later on New Year's Eve 1887. However, by the time of his mother's death he had already begun the work, which he later declared was "composed for nothing … for fun, if I may be permitted to say so!"

In 1887–88, Fauré composed the first version of the work, which he called "un petit Requiem" with five movements (Introit and Kyrie, Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei and In Paradisum), but did not include the "Libera Me". This version was first performed January 16, 1888 under the composer’s direction in La Madeleine in Paris. The treble soloist was Louis Aubert, and the occasion was the funeral of one Joseph La Soufaché, an architect.

In 1889, Fauré added the "Hostias" portion of the Offertory and in 1890 he expanded the Offertory and added the 1877 "Libera Me". This second version, known today as the chamber orchestra version, was premièred January 21, 1893, again at the Madeleine with Fauré conducting.

In 1899–1900, the score was reworked for full orchestra. There is some question as to whether this was the work of Fauré himself or one of his students. This version was premiered April 6, 1900. It was the best known version until British composer John Rutter rediscovered Fauré's original manuscript of the chamber orchestra version in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in the early 1980s. It is this version that we will be performing in April.

In 1924 the Requiem was performed at Fauré's own funeral, and it was first performed in the United States in 1931. (Wikipedia)

Francis Poulenc's joyful Gloria

The Gloria by Francis Poulenc (FP 177), scored for soprano solo, large orchestra, and chorus, is a setting of the Roman Catholic Gloria in excelsis Deo text. One of Poulenc's most celebrated works, the Gloria was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation in honor of Sergei Koussevitzky and his wife Natalia, the namesakes of the foundation. It was premiered on January 21, 1961 in Boston by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus Pro Musica under conductor Charles Münch.

While the text of the Gloria is taken from the Latin mass, Poulenc does not so much set the text but rather adds its sounds and rhythms to his musical palette. Poulenc deliberately contrasts the word and musical accents, clearly heard in the opening phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo." The most idiosyncratic music belongs to the bouncy, rhythmic Laudamus te, which created quite a bit of controversy and was denounced by critics as irreverent. Poulenc responded, "In writing it, I simply thought of those frescoes of Gozzoli in which the angels are sticking out their tongues and also of those serious Benedictine monks whom I spotted one day playing soccer." The third and fifth sections feature the soprano solo in beautiful but quite angular melodic lines with treacherously wide intervals, lines which are almost mirror images of each other. The final section is punctuated by restatements of the opening orchestral fanfare, leading into a wonderful a cappella "Amen" for the soprano solo and ending with the most exquisitely lovely melody in the entire work, appended as a sort of coda before the final "Amen." 

Poulenc's writing was fundamentally tonal, but his concept of key signature was a fluid one, and his music abounds with sudden changes in dynamic, rhythmic and harmonic structure. He often works in short musical phrases, repeating them with subtle variation. Above all, he continually combines and recombines groups of voices and instruments, affording him not only a wide variety of musical color but also a sound of wonderful clarity and precision. (Michael Moore)