Mozart composed his Exsultate, jubilate (Exult, rejoice) in 1773. He wrote it for a famous castrato whose technical excellence he much admired. Today, of course, this exuberant solo motet is sung by female sopranos, and tonight by our wonderful soloist Eloise Irving, whom we warmly welcome back to sing with us.
Our concert commences with Josef Haydn's Little Organ Mass of 1775. In the Gloria and Credo, Haydn achieves brevity by having two or more parts sing different words simultaneously. By contrast, the gloriously expressive Benedictus is a fully expanded soprano aria.
Maurice Duruflé's Requiem is dedicated to the memory of his father. It was published in 1947 by the French firm Durand but commissioned six years earlier when France was under the Vichy government. Duruflé was still working on it in 1944 when the regime collapsed, and it was not completed until the year of publication. Scored for four-part chorus, soprano solo and organ, the work is based on numerous chants from the Gregorian Mass of the dead.
His Requiem is arguably Duruflé's best-known and best-loved work. Serenity in the Introit, Kyrie, Sanctus and Pie Jesu contrasts with passages of passion and high drama in the Domine Jesu Christe and the Dies illa section of the Libera me. In Paradisum brings this masterpiece to a spellbinding conclusion which harks back to Gabriel Fauré's famous setting. Sopranos sing of angels leading one to paradise, and this final movement ends with an angelic chorus.