Durufle Requiem and Gounod St Cecilia Mass Concert

Durufle Requiem and Gounod St Cecilia Mass Concert with Hereford Choral Society

Hereford Choral Society’s Spring Concert consists of two contrasting works, separated by nearly a hundred years. Both come from the French tradition of grand choral compositions for Catholic worship, following Charpentier and Berlioz. Expansive and rich in scope (and demands – Gounod originally required six harps!), both take expressive liberties with strict liturgy. Gounod even includes a prayer for the recently-crowned Napoleon III. His St Cecilia Mass may be subtitled Messe Solennelle or Solemn Mass, but most of it sounds anything but solemn! The Requiem by Maurice Durufle, by contrast, is one of the most intense and deeply moving pieces of church music ever written, based on monastic plainchant but full of drama and contrast, concluding with an ethereal ‘In Paradisum’.

Booking: www.herefordchoralsociety.org/tickets boxoffice@courtyard.org.uk or

telephone 01432 340555 or

in person at the Courtyard Hereford HR4 9JR

W: herefordchoralsociety.org