Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Maurice Duruflé

The Thirteen Choir Noontime Concert

When is 13 not bad luck? When it’s The Thirteen, of course!

Join me for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network for performances by this superlative chamber choir, directed by Matthew Robertson. On the program will be two French masterworks: Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Francis Poulenc’s “Figure humaine.”

Written in 1943, during the Nazi occupation of France, Poulenc’s cantata for double-mixed choir sets texts by the surrealist poet Paul Éluard. The work is an extended hymn to Liberty, victorious over tyranny.

Duruflé’s Requiem began as a commission from the collaborationist Vichy regime, which had requested from the composer a symphonic poem. He decided to write a Requiem instead, an expression of solace in a time of strife. In the event, this Mass for the Dead outlasted the regime that had requested it.

The Thirteen’s next performances will take place this weekend, in Washington, DC, and Bathesda, MD. The program, “Bach Reflections,” will include Handel’s “Dixit Dominus,” Bach’s “Lobet den Herrn,” and Agostino Steffani’s “Stabat Mater.” You can find out more at thethirteenchoir.org.

Then stick around. There’s plenty of good fortune to be found, in the form of great music, this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 26, 2019
Classical Music for All Seasons on WWFM

As the weather has careened over the past several days from 20 degrees and snow to a projected 60 degrees tomorrow, so shall our musical selections this afternoon be varied and perhaps even a mite exhilarating.

We’ll observe the anniversary of the birth of composer Reinhold Glière with his flamboyant symphonic poem “The Zaporozhy Cossacks,” inspired by the raucous painting of Ilya Repin. Sir Alexander Gibson’s artistry will be recalled through one of his great Sibelius recordings. The Norwegian composer, Christian Sinding (he of “Rustles of Spring” fame) will be represented by his über-Romantic piano concerto. And Maurice Duruflé will set a more contemplative mood with his “Four Motets on Gregorian Themes.”

Is it winter? Spring? We have music suitable for all seasons this afternoon, from 4 to 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

January 11, 2017
Lenten Choral Concerts in Princeton & Trenton

Is nothing sacred? Actually, it turns out a good deal is sacred, as two area choral groups offer intriguing programs for this Lenten season. Both will strive to present “authentic” experiences in Gothic Revival structures this weekend.

Princeton Pro Musica (Saturday at 8 p.m.) will offer contrasting works at Princeton University Chapel in the form of Josef Rheinberger’s “Stabat Mater” and Eriks Esenvalds’ “Passion and Resurrection;” and VOICES Chorale (Sunday at 3 p.m.) will present a reconstruction of an event which took place at Trenton’s Trinity Cathedral 45 years ago: a performance under the composer’s direction of Maurice Duruflé’s “Requiem.”

Rheinberger, everyone’s favorite composer from Lichtenstein, will also be represented on the Princeton Pro Musica concert by his Organ Concerto No. 2, with Princeton University organist Eric Plutz as the soloist. PPM artistic director Ryan James Brandau will conduct.

A recreation of Duruflé’s 1971 Requiem performance in Trenton will feature VOICES Chorale, under the direction of its founder, Lyn Ransom, along with members of Princeton High School Choir and the Trinity Cathedral Absalom Jones Inspirational Choir. Barbara Rearick will be the mezzo-soprano soloist. The organist, David Enlow, will perform a solo recital on the concert’s first half, with music by Bach and Louis Vierne, as well as Duruflé’s own “Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain.”

Details in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/03/classical_music_ppm_voices_cho.html

PHOTOS: Rheinberger (left) in Princeton and Duruflé in Trenton – two compelling reasons to get you to church this weekend

March 4, 2016
Early Music Month on WPRB: Medieval & Renaissance Inspired Sounds

My, but it’s Early – Early Music, that is!

This morning on WPRB, in honor of Early Music Month, we’ll be quaffing dances, quaffing chant, quaffing madrigals, and quaffing hymn tunes, as “contemporary” composers – composers who have worked over the course of the past century – look back for inspiration to music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Maurice Duruflé would fall soundly into that category. Duruflé, a former choirboy at the Cathedral of Rouen and one of the greatest organists of his time, drew on his love of chant in the composition of his Requiem. Lyn Ransom, founder and artistic director of VOICES Chorale, will drop by this morning in the 9:00 hour to talk a bit about the ensemble’s upcoming presentation of the work on Sunday, at Trenton’s Trinity Cathedral, in a reconstruction of a performance given under the direction of the composer while on a visit there with his wife in 1971.

Our playlist this morning will also include music inspired by Elizabethan dances, a guitar concerto based on Renaissance madrigals, a violin concerto on modes derived from Gregorian chant, and wind music based on some early lute pieces, among others. Around 9:45 or 9:50, we’ll enjoy a recording of Philadelphia composer, writer, and radio personality Kile Smith’s “Vespers,” ably performed by The Crossing and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band.

It’s a taste of Merrie Olde Princeton, from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The bodkins are perpetually at odds, on Classic Ross Amico.

#EarlyMusicMonth

#EarlyMusicAmerica

March 3, 2016
Early Music’s Influence on Modern Composers

The pull of history is strong this morning. We’re celebrating Early Music Month, examining the influence of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance on “contemporary” composers – that is to say, composers who lived within the past 100 years. In fact, several of them (Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, William Kraft, and Kile Smith) are still very much with us.

Lyn Ransom, founder and artistic director of VOICES Chorale, will join me in the 9:00 hour to talk a little bit about the ensemble’s upcoming performance on Sunday, at Trenton’s Trinity Cathedral, of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, a work imbued with the composer’s lifelong love of chant, in a reconstruction of a performance given there under Duruflé’s direction in 1971.

Plenty more to come, including Respighi’s “Concerto Gregoriano,” Carl Orff’s “Kleines Konzert,” and Kile Smith’s “Vespers,” featuring Philadelphia-based Piffaro, The Renaissance Band.

It’s all tonsures and codpieces until 11:00 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

PHOTO: Husband and wife Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé

#EarlyMusicMonth

#EarlyMusicAmerica

March 3, 2016

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