Fauré's Requiem by candlelight | Nonsuch Singers (chamber choir)

Join Nonsuch Singers (‘one of London’s best chamber choirs’, The Times), under their new conductor Tom Bullard, for a candle-lit performance of Fauré’s intimate and deeply-moving Requiem and other much-loved French sacred works from the 19th and 20th centuries, in the beautiful setting of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The programme includes Duruflé’s celebrated Quatre motets sur des themes grégoriens, based on plainsong which inspired much of his choral writing, and mellifluous motets by Villette, Saint-Saëns and Franck, whose motet Panis angelicus is one of the world’s best-loved short sacred pieces. Poulenc’s dramatic and heart-felt Litanies à la vierge noire for upper voices belong to a stream of religious works which he composed after a life-changing pilgrimage to the shrine of the Black Virgin at Rocamadour in the Dordogne, following the death of a close friend. The first half concludes with Fauré’s sumptuous and ever-popular Cantique de Jean Racine, composed when he was only 20.

Organ virtuoso Richard Pearce adds his own distinctive brilliance with a performance of Duruflé’s exciting Toccata from Suite No 5.

Nonsuch Singers has a reputation for innovative programmes, high-quality singing and communicative performances. The choir’s considerable repertoire encompasses a cappella and accompanied works from the Renaissance to the present day, and the choir performs regularly with many of the UK’s leading period instrumental ensembles and finest young vocal soloists.