ULSTER ORCHESTRA 2016/7 SEASON: FAURÉ REQUIEM AT EASTER

Wagner Good Friday Music from Parsifal

Poulenc Stabat mater

Fauré Requiem


Jac van Steen CONDUCTOR
Sarah Tynan SOPRANO
William Dazeley BARITONE
Belfast Philharmonic Choir
Stephen Doughty CHORUS-MASTER

As a triumphant fanfare accompanies the dawn sunrise, the weary Parsifal rests and observes with wonder the beauty of the sunlit, flower-filled meadow around him. ‘This is how Good Friday ought to be’, thought Wagner.

In the 1930s, a period of soul-searching sent Francis Poulenc back to his religious roots. The result, amongst other sacred works, was his transcendent Stabat mater, ‘a prayer of intercession’.

A favourite with lovers of fine choral music, Fauré’s serene Requiem is the devout composer’s personal vision: ‘…it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.’ Its beautiful tranquillity allows all those who hear it to share in the musical and spiritual comfort of that vision of timeless peace. There’s more to it than the blissful ‘Pie Jesu’; this is music that speaks straight to the heart.