Berlioz Te Deum & Fauré Requiem | Bournemouth SO | Adrian Partington

The intimacy and familiarity of Fauré’s Requiem contrasts with the grandeur and sheer spectacle of the Berlioz Te Deum in this tour de force of French choral masterpieces:

Over 900 performers took part in the premiere of Berlioz’ lavishly-scored, organ-rich, chorally-supersized setting of the Te Deum, a majestic, at times elemental hymn writ large to ‘the eternal hopes and fears of the human race’. Its first performance provoked wild enthusiasm and ‘tears that flowed like a river’. Tonight’s performance is writ larger than usual, including two movements often omitted (the prélude and March for the presentation of the colours), and for the ringing tenor ‘Te ergo quaesumus’ we welcome Paul Charles Clarke - recently an ardent Alfred for Welsh National Opera’s ‘Fledermaus’ - to join the assembled 300+ singers from the choral societies of Bristol and Gloucester and choristers of those two city's Cathedrals.

Cementing the French connection and forging a liturgical entente cordiale is Fauré’s altogether more intimate and reassuring Requiem - a ‘lullaby of death’ discharged in the reposeful resignation of the beguiling ‘In Paradisum’.

This will be a repeat of the 24 March concert at Gloucester Cathedral.

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