Archived event
Featuring
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones conductor
Elspeth Bawden soprano
Stephen Marsh baritone
with Musicians of the MSO
Program
Brooke Shelley Missa Ænigmata
Elgar (arr. Cameron) Lux Aeterna (from Enigma Variations)
Tavener Song for Athene
Fauré Requiem
About this performance
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus presents Fauré’s glorious Requiem alongside a small group of Chamber musicians from the MSO. Warren Trevelyan-Jones directs this program also featuring three a capella works of beautiful sonority in the wide expanses of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
- His best-known work, Fauré composed his Requiem to be “an aspiration towards happiness above”. This uplifting work focuses on the restful and fear-free nature of death, ending with In Paradisum in which the soul is ushered to the door of paradise by choirs of angels.
- John Tavener’s Song for Athene (also known as Alleluia. May Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest) was originally composed as a tribute for a family friend killed in a cycling accident, but received new prominence after its performance at the funeral service of Princess Diana.
- Two related works complete the program – a choral setting of Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations – “an utterly sublime moment of music” (Classic FM) – and a work by Australian composer Brooke Shelley that was inspired by the famed variations.
- St. Patrick’s Cathedral sits atop a hill on the eastern edge of the city, its marvellous central spire seen from far away, once the tallest structure of the Melbourne cityscape. Inside the Cathedral the ascending basalt columns and the gleaming mosaics and marble create a sense of wonder for this music to come to life within.
Duration: approx. 65 minutes, no interval
