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Bristol and Gloucester choirs unite for two spectacular concerts
| Published: 21st March 2012 15:49 |
More than 400 performers will come together to perform two great French choral masterpieces - Berlioz Te Deum and Fauré Requiem - in two spectacular concerts at Gloucester Cathedral on Saturday 24 March and Bristol's Colston Hall on Saturday 31 March.
There is a definite theme of 'two' running through this pair of concerts taking place in the region this month:
Two of the region's leading large choirs (Bristol and Gloucester Choral Societies) join the choristers of the two city's Cathedrals to perform two great French choral Masterpieces (Fauré Requiem and Berlioz Te Deum) in two performances - Saturday 24 March at Gloucester Cathedral and Saturday 31 March at Colston Hall, Bristol.
Adrian Partington will conduct both concerts, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and soloists Paul Charles Clarke (tenor), Hannah Atherton (soprano) and Richard Walshe (bass).
Fauré's Requiem is one of the world's most popular pieces of choral music - each movement exquisitely crafted reflecting Fauré's attitude to death as 'a joyful deliverance, a striving towards the bliss of the next world' rather than the more sombre and weighty nature of some other Requiem settings.
Contrasting this intimate and delicate work, the concerts will also feature the Berlioz Te Deum. Berlioz is known for writing large-scale works requiring hundreds of performers, and his Te Deum is a prime example. In a letter to fellow composer Franz Liszt following the 1855 première, Berlioz wrote '..it was colossal, like a scene out of the Apocalypse. I assure you that it is a tremendous work; the final movement surpasses all the enormities of which I am guilty up to now'.
Live performances of the Berlioz Te Deum are something of a rarity simply because of the number of performers required and the complexities of staging such an event.
Both concerts are proving to be very popular, but there are some tickets left for each performance:
The 24 March Gloucester Cathedral concert starts at 7pm. Tickets cost from £6 - see www.gloucesterchoral.com or telephone 01242 691190 for details.
The 31 March concert at Colston Hall, Bristol starts at 7.30pm. Tickets cost from £10 - see www.bristolchoral.co.uk, telephone the Colston Hall on 0117 922 3686 for details, or book online at: http://www.colstonhall.org/whatson/Event2587
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