Downtown Voices choir and NOVUS NY orchestra, conducted by Stephen Sands, perform requiems by Durufle and Faure, masterpieces of solace and beauty. About the Program Maurice Durufle's Requiem (1947) began as a set of organ pieces based on the Gregorian chants used in the Mass for the Dead. The composer had already sketched out his organ suite, when he received a commission from his publisher, Durand, to write a Requiem. He used those sketches as the basis for this serene composition. This work, a memorial to Durufle's father, is influenced by his study of Ravel, Debussy, Dukas and especially the Faure Requiem, to which it pays homage. Gabriel Faure composed his Requiem between 1887 and 1890. Its focus is on eternal rest, consolation, and filled with moments of sensitive reflection and fiery drama. Faure wrote of the work, "Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."
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