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A Fantastic French Feast
9 July 2017
Microphones and Eiffel Tower Ready for
the Recording
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Our Musical Director is ready to Record!
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Last night the Northampton Bach Choir was joined by organist Stephen
Moore, violinist Stephen Hague, cellist Corinne Malitskie, harpist
Rowena Bass, and vocal soloists Philippa Hyde and Gwion Thomas, to
perform the Requiem settings by Maurice Duruflé and Gabriel Fauré.
Whilst this provided the audience with a slightly shorted concert
than usual, it did enable us to have a very social interval, with
wine and cheese, and to launch our latest commercial CD recording –
Requiem Reflections.
Your new CD arrived
yesterday – what a simply
stunning achievement. From
the quietest to the loudest
moments, it was brilliant
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The concert began with Fauré’s Requiem, sung in a new edition by
David Hill, rescored the smallest chamber forces imaginable; it was
this version of the Requiem that was recorded by the choir last
October in the concert venue, St Matthew’s Church. Fauré’s setting
of the Requiem is essentially a quiet and peaceful one, as are the
other Fauré works on the recording – his Tantum ergo op. 55, the
Pavane, Une châtelaine en sa tour ... for solo harp, and the
Messe
brève, arranged from Fauré’s Messe basse and Messe des pêcheurs de
Villerville by our Musical Director, for organ, SATB choir, and two
soloists.
In rehearsal for Fauré
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Of course I knew the
Fauré, but I had not heard
the Duruflé before. In many
ways it is even more
exciting than the Fauré,
especially in your dramatic
performance. Even though the
choir didn’t have a large
orchestra, the organist more
than made up for it, and the
choir rose to the occasion,
producing such singing of
such incredible intensity –
not only quiet, but also
astonishingly loud!!!
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After cheese and wine, and the launch of the CD by our President,
Sir Peter Ellwood VLL, CBE, the choir tacked a very different beast
– Duruflé’s rich, luscious, and plainsong-infused setting of the
Requiem. There is much that is peaceful and quiet in the work, but
there are also outbursts of incredible ferocity, which were superbly
sung by the choir.
Cheese and Wine at the Interval
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