Come and Sing Fauré Requiem

Note: pictures are all hosted on flickr.com - click on any picture to go there to view or download larger versions.

On Saturday, May 16th 2009, around 130 singers gathered in the Baptist Church to work on the Fauré Requiem with David Hill. Many of these were members of Choir 2000 but others came from near and far having heard about the event through our publicity and/or mailing lists.

David is widely respected as a choral and orchestral conductor, both in the UK and abroad. At present he is the Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers , Musical Director of the Bach Choir , Music Director of the Leeds Philharmonic Society and Chief Conductor of the Southern Sinfonia. Despite this busy life, he still maintains close connections with this area, having been director of music at St John's College from 2003-2007. He is also much in demand for choral workshops such as this.

David Hill

Many helpers on the day contributed towards the success of this day: helping to organize the car parking, greeting singers for registration, handing out music, and providing welcome refreshment in the form of tea, coffee and juice. And many others helped before the day, providing voice-enhanced rehearsal tapes/CDs and organising lunch, music hire, putting together an orchestra and other details of the day. Many thanks to all who helped make this an enjoyable day for those who took part.

Singing begin at 10:00 with some warm-ups for voice and body, followed by a quick run of the entire Fauré. For this we were joined by the soloists, Simon Adams (bass) who sang the solo bass part for the Haydn Maria Theresa Mass in Choir 2000's Christmas 2008 concert, and Choir 2000's own Ruth Chandler (soprano). Before going back over the detail of the piece, David then introduced the singers to 2 anthems, by John Tavener from a collection of 5 taken from Tavener's massive work "The Veil of the Temple". These were "Mother of God, here I stand" and "Awed by the beauty". Many present were not familiar with Tavener, and this was a welcome reminder that new music need not be technically or aurally challenging. Work then resumed on the Fauré until 12:30, when there was a break for lunch.

For those who had ordered it, there was a hog-roast lunch (with vegetarian option) organised at the Red Lion: others who had brought their own lunch stayed to eat at the Baptist church, where tea and coffee were provided.

Gone to lunch

lunch at the Red Lion

Choir 2000's current conductor, Peter Britton, was the pianist for the morning, with Richard Sands taking over the keyboard part on the organ for the afternoon. The edition of the Fauré used was the John Rutter edition, which tries to embody Faureé's original intentions for the piece, with a reduced orchestral accompaniment. For this, the singers were joined in the afternoon by the Histon Chamber Orchestra, incluing harp. Having orchestral accompaniment added greatly to the enjoyment of singing, bringing out many different textures in the piece. Rehearsal carried on until a 4pm tea break.

Histon Chamber Orchestra

After the tea-break, there was a performance of one of the Tavener anthems "Mother of God, here I stand" followed by the Fauré Requiem, to a small but appreciative audience.

Soloists

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass

Tenors and Basses

Putting it all together...

Performance

David Hill concluded the occasion with a few words reminding all of what a pleasure it is, and how important it is for people to get together, to enjoy making music together, especially in uncertain times such as these. All present agreed heartily, before taking their leave.

If you have any suggestions for works for future Choral Days, please send to info2000@choir2000.org.

The event was organised by Choir2000 .

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