Fauré's Requiem in Leeds by Various, Ó (2014/2014), Seoltóir Simon Wright, Town Hall, Leeds, United Kingdom

Concert Information "My Requiem wasn't written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that!" Fauré Poulenc was not particularly religious, until, following the death of his friend, he went on a pilgrimage and started to write sacred works. These included his understated Salve Regina and his Four Christmas Motets. Canteloube grew up in Auvergne and the influence of the countryside can be heard in his folk-inspired Songs of Auvergne, written in the local language of Occitan. The most well-known song is Baeïlèro which was said to have been inspired by a call that he heard between two shepherds. Listen out for the oboe imitating the shepherd’s pipe in this movement. Our concert of French music is completed by Faure’s setting of the Roman Catholic mass for the dead. Leaving out the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) movement, Faure said “It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance...rather than as a painful experience...”