Fauré Requiem
Saturday, April 19, 2008 / 2:00 pm
Benaroya Hall
Mark Taper Auditorium
Reserved seating: $40, $30, $25 & $20
The Seattle Choral Company returns to Benaroya Hall on April 19, 2008, to present a rich worldwide tapestry of sacred and secular choral works.
Gabriel Fauré’s “Requiem” is luminous and shimmering, suffused by warmth and consolation. It is a rare gem in the French repertoire, performed and loved the world over. For this April performance of Faure’s masterpiece, the magnificent Watjen Concert Organ will receive centerpiece attention, as played by Seattle organist, Clint Kraus.
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), is one of the bright young stars in contemporary concert music, and has quickly become a much commissioned, published, and performed choral and symphonic composer. As a student at the Juilliard School of Music, he studied with eminent composers John Corigliano and David Diamond. His “Five
Hebrew Love Songs” were dedicated to his wife, the Jerusalem-born soprano, Hila Plitmann. The lyrics, written by Plitmann in Hebrew, are delicately beautiful love poems, each capturing a moment shared between author and composer while on vacation in the Swiss Alps.
Accompanied by the ancient Vielle and Persian hand drums, the women of the Seattle Choral Company will present the first Seattle performance of “From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez,” composed by St. Paul resident, Abbie Betinis
(b. 1980). This seductive suite is based on the 14th century poems of Hâfez, and brings to fruition the love, mysticism, and Sufi themes that have long pervaded Persian poetry.
The men’s voices of the Seattle Choral Company will be spotlighted in Maurice Duruflé’s ethereal “Messe cum jubilo” (Mass ‘with rejoicing’) a Latin mass setting based the Gregorian Mass IX. Completed as recently as 1966, Duruflé’s mass recalls monastic plainchant. It is as restrained as Faure’s earlier setting of the requiem, and the results are both subtle and sublime.
Order of Program
Part One |
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| Messe “cum jubilo”, Op 11 |
Men’s Voices, Organ, Harp,
Strings, and Timpani |
Music by Maurice Duruflé |
| I. Kyrie |
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| II. Gloria |
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| III. Sanctus |
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| IV. Benedictus |
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| V. Agnus Dei |
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| Five Hebrew Love Songs |
SATB and String Orchestra |
Music by Eric Whitacre |
| I. Temuná (A Picture) |
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Text by Hila Plitmann |
| II. Kalá kallá (Light Bride) |
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| III. Lárov (Mostly) |
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| IV. Éyze shéleg! (What Snow!) |
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| V. Rakút (Tenderness) |
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From Behind the Caravan:
Songs of Hâfez |
Women’s Voices, Viola,
Iranian Tar and Hand Drums |
Music by Abbie Betinis |
| I. we have come |
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| II. suffer no grief |
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| III. closer to the fire |
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| IV. boatpeople |
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| V. we have come (reprise) |
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Part Two |
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| Requiem |
SATB, Chamber Orchestra and Organ |
Gabriel Fauré |
| I. Introit & Kyrie |
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| II. Offertory |
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| III. Sanctus |
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| IV. Pie Jesu |
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| V. Agnus Dei |
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| VI. Libera me |
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| VII. In Paradisum |
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