Intiem koorwerk: Pärt, Poulenc en het Requiem van Fauré

The English Choir Tradition

'Probably the best small professional choir in the world', the American Encore Magazine wrote about Polyphony, founded in 1986 by Stephen Layton. Together with the instrumental accompaniment of Britten Sinfonia, they represent the best that the English choral tradition has to offer. The combination already proved this earlier with a 'scorchingly intense reading' ( OpusKlassiek ) of Poulenc's religious works. Today, in addition to work by the Baltic composers Pärt and Vasks, there will be an undoubtedly impressive performance of Fauré's Requiem in the intimate 'version d'église'. Buy your tickets for this vocal tradition here .

An intimate Fauré

'A lullaby for death', is how Fauré's famous Requiem has been called. By omitting the often dark 'Dies irae', the composer emphasized not the fear of death, but the joyful loveliness and liberation of it. For decades, the Requiem mainly sounded in the grand version for choir and symphony orchestra. Until, among others, the English choir director John Rutter made an attempt to reconstruct the more intimate version that premiered in 1893 in the Madeleine, the church where Fauré was organist. A probing version that fits Polyphony like a second coat.