Duruflé Requiem

This concert for Remembrance combines music from England and France which was composed during the world wars of the 20^th century.  Hubert Parry’s lush double choir setting of words from Psalm 39, the last of his Songs of Farewell, is a plea for certainty and salvation written at a time when his students were being killed and gassed on World War 1’s western front. 

Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem was written in response to a commission by the Vichy government during World War 2 but completed after the Allied liberation.  It sets most of the traditional Latin text using chants from the Gregorian mass for the dead but accompanies them with lush choral harmony and a famously virtuosic organ part.

The beautiful rendition will be performed by Birmingham Cathedral’s Choir of Girls and Lower Voices.