Faure Requiem and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast

Durham Choral Society

This evening concert showcases two contrasting works in the magnificent setting of Durham Cathedral
Fauré’s Requiem is a favourite with audiences throughout the UK and is a setting of the traditional Requiem Mass. The work went through several iterations during its composition and premiered three times in Paris. It was also played at Faure’s own funeral.
Faure himself told an interviewer, "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.“
In total contrast, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast was premiered at the Leeds Festival in 1931 and secured William Walton as one of the foremost composers of his day. Walton went on to compose Crown Imperial for the coronation of George VI.
The work is based on the bible story of King Belshazzar who holds a feast for a thousand of his lords, and commands that the vessels taken from the temple at Jerusalem be brought in so that they can drink from them, but as the Babylonians drink a hand appears and writes on the wall. Belshazzar calls for his magicians and diviners to interpret the writing, but they are unable even to read them. The dramatic music reflects the story and makes any choir performing it to rise to the challenges it sets.
Northern Spirit Singers were named Adult Choir of the Year in 2014.

Tickets available
In person or by phone: Gala Theatre Box Office, Millennium Square, Durham, DH1 1WA. Tel: 03000 266600
Online: https://www.wegottickets.com/location/2273
Email: tickets@durhamchoralsociety.org.uk
And on the door

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Durham-Choral-Society-460773057341198/