Saturday 12 March 2016

7.30pm

(ends 9.15pm approximately)

The Apex, Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds

Cherubini:     Requiem in C minor

Haydn:           Te Deum in C major

Beethoven:    Symphony No. 1 in C major

Prometheus Orchestra

Bury Bach Choir

Philip Reed conductor

Tonight’s concert features works from three great composers: Haydn, Beethoven and Cherubini.

Though Italian by upbringing, Luigi Cherubini - as director of the Paris Conservatoire - became the most influential man in French music.  He wrote his Requiem in C minor for a commemoration service in 1817 for Louis XVI of France (23 years after the king’s beheading during the French Revolution). It was much admired by Schumann, Brahms and particularly Beethoven (who rated Cherubini as the greatest composer of his day) and was performed at Beethoven’s funeral.  This very powerful and beautiful Requiem for chorus and orchestra has an assured grandeur that combines passion and power with simplicity and purity. It is now widely acknowledged as one of the timeless monuments of sacred art.

In his setting of the Te Deum for choir and orchestra, Haydn unexpectedly imbues the traditional religious text with an engaging aura of happiness and exuberant gratitude.

Composed on the cusp of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the first symphony of Beethoven takes Haydn’s classical form, yet Beethoven makes it his own, hinting at his greatness to come.  It is by turns surprising, dramatic, exciting and wild, yet throughout this piece the harmonies and orchestration are incredibly beautiful.