Saturday 9 June 2012

7.30 pm
Banqueting Hall, Guildhall, Hull HU1 2AA

Gabriel Fauré

J.S. Bach

Missa Brevis in A BWV 234

Fauré

Requiem

Gabriel Fauré’s setting of the Requiem is practically unique in its concept. This may be why it has become so popular. Its restrained style is unlike any other choral music of its period. Fauré himself said that he wrote it ‘for fun’, but this would seem to deny the sincere expression of loss which permeates the whole score. It is more likely that it was inspired by the deaths of both his father and his mother shortly before its composition.

Unlike Fauré’s work, Bach’s Missa Brevis in A major is rarely heard. Unlike the mighty Mass in B minor, which is written on the grandest scale, this mass - one of several short mass settings written towards the end of his life – is a work of almost chamber proportions, a feature enhanced by its delicate scoring for flutes and strings alone. As well as several choruses it includes impressive solos for soprano, alto and bass.