It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But that is how I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness hereafter...’ It was in those words that Gabriel Fauré described the core idea of one of his best-known works, which he composed between 1887 and 1893. It is above all the chorus of angels in the final part, In Paradisum, that expresses his ‘trust in eternal rest’. Fauré’s Requiem is here preceded by two other well-known French works of the time: Debussy’s symphonic poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, inspired by Mallarmé’s poem, and Chausson’s emotionally charged song cycle with symphonic elements, Poem of Love and the Sea , which ends with the death of love. Alain Altinoglu, Sandrine Piau, and Stéphane Degout are the ideal team for this program.
