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Serving God in the heart of our community since 1881 St Andrew's Church, Taunton |
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"A sublime piece - full of gentle, uplifting hope for mankind"
Amici sing the Fauré Requiem - All Souls' Day Thursday 2 November 2006 at 7.30pm
St. Andrew’s Church in Taunton is celebrating 125 years of serving God in the heart of the Rowbarton community. The church will be marking All Souls’ Day by hosting the acclaimed local choir Amici, who will sing the Fauré Requiem within a Service of Holy Communion. The piece will be conducted by well known local conductor and Music Director John Cole, and the organist will be the extremely gifted Stephen Bell from Queen’s College.
Gabrielle Fauré - a church musician Conductor John Cole writes: "Gabriel Fauré was a church musician first and foremost, writing rather intimate music for the resources he had around him. Thus his Requiem was originally scored for a very small ensemble of unusual instrumentation. It is thought that this was in part because of the people he had available to him. Later the piece became so popular that a full orchestral scoring was made, but this has always seemed overwhelming in nature, so when John Rutter reworked the original, aiming to get as close as he could to Fauré’s original intentions there was general approval. Rutter’s scoring is for one solo violin, 4 violas, three cellos, one bass, one harp, two horns(or 4) a single trumpet and organ. The organ is dominant throughout and is played from the vocal score. The result is a wonderful sonority unequalled in any other piece. However, it is possible, as in the performance at St. Andrew's, to manage satisfactorily with organ only." A moving experience "The work has been important to me personally for some 55 years, perhaps because of its wonderful mix of sombre sonority and gentle uplifting hope for mankind. The choral writing is sublime and the central Pie Jesu soprano solo is of course simply marvellous. I must have performed it a dozen times, but this is the third time in a decade that Amici has sung this work and we plan a fourth when in France next summer. However, never before have I done it within a liturgical setting. I think it will be a very moving experience. We have broken off from preparation of our November 12th Remembrance Sunday Concert at Kings College Chapel, where we present Brahms Double Concerto and his German Requiem, to perform the Fauré, because we feel privileged to have been invited to help you celebrate your great day, and because we love to sing this piece." A year long celebration
This special performance of the Fauré Requiem is one of a number of concerts and special events organised by the church in celebration of its 125th anniversary. The church was consecrated in 1881, having been built to serve the rapidly expanding area of Taunton which served the newly arrived Great Western Railway. Amici will sing Fauré’s Requiem at St. Andrew’s Church, Greenway Avenue, Taunton at 7.30pm on Thursday 2 November. Everyone is welcome. The piece forms part of a service of Holy Communion and there will be a retiring collection. |
Page updated 30/09/2007
