Maurice Duruflé Requiem
Maurice Duruflé Four Motets
Francis Poulenc Organ Concerto

King’s Lynn Festival Chorus
The British Sinfonietta
Jeremiah Stephenson organ
Sarah Anne Champion mezzo soprano
Jolyon Loy baritone
Ben Horden Music Director

This evening, we are transported to the ‘Belle Époque’ (Beautiful Era) of twentieth century Paris; encouraged by the success of the World’s Fair and the expansion of France’s colonial empire, the City inspired optimism and frivolity and ignited the creative genius of its artists in theatre, cinema, art and music. Although immersed in this chaotic and creative melting pot, Duruflé showed little interest in rubbing shoulders with the literary and musical elite in Paris’s exclusive salons. Despite this, he was recognised as one of the finest organists of his day, and an outstanding teacher and composer. Duruflé’s unparalleled grasp of harmony and Gregorian chant form the basis of his small, but meticulously refined opus, and not least his Requiem, performed this evening in its reduced orchestral version by the composer, preserving as it does the intimacy of the organ-only score and the expressive and dramatic possibilities of the full orchestral score.

By the mid-twentieth century, the rosy landscape had darkened as a result of the political situation in Europe and with World War II on the horizon. By 1938, Francis Poulenc’s personal outlook reflected more acutely that of the changing world around him and he had lost the impish joie de vivre of his youth. The year ended with his concerto for organ, strings and timpani. The work combines Poulenc’s former carefree sense of musical and harmonic abandon with an altogether more Gothic musical architecture, in places seemingly drawing its inspiration from the likes of J S Bach and his fellow North German masters. The work was premiered by Duruflé in early 1939.