s Berceuse de la mort – Collegium Vocale Gent

Collegium Vocale Gent

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE

17/11/2013 — 13:00

*Guillaume LEKEU* (1870-1894):
Adagio pour quatuor d’orchestre

*Anton BRUCKNER* (1824-1896):
Ave Maria – Os justi – Vexilla regis

*Gabriel FAURE* (1845-1924):
Messe de Requiem op.48

Hana Blazikova _soprano_
Benoît Arnould _bass_

*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Orchestre des Champs-Elysées
Philippe Herreweghe

tickets

Berceuse de la mort

As a product of the _Ecole Niedermeyer_ and the organist/choirmaster of the Church of La Madeleine, Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was especially well placed to reinvigorate the stuffy image of the Paris church music scene. He succeeded with flying colours with his _Messe de Requiem_. The celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe conducted the final, seven-part orchestral version of this ‘_berceuse de la mort’_ (lullaby of death) on 6 April 1900. Fauré had no fear of eternal damnation; in his view, death meant eternal rest and serene bliss. Could this be the reason why he wrote the mass ‘for the pleasure of it’?