Wednesday 8 September 2021

Oxford Bach Choir launches 125th Anniversary Season with online performance of Duruflé’s Requiem

Oxford Bach Choir is celebrating its 125th Anniversary Season beginning with a performance of Duruflé’s Requiem

Oxford Bach Choir is celebrating its 125th Anniversary Season beginning with a performance of Duruflé’s Requiem which will be performed in the Sheldonian Theatre and streamed on-line. On Sunday 19 September 2021, Benjamin Nicholas will conduct the Oxford Bach Choir in Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem (written in 1947) with Lila Chrisp (mezzo-soprano), Ben Davies (bass), Rebecca McNaught (cello) and Robert Quinney (organ). The work will be paired with Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, and Oxford University Professor of Poetry, Alice Oswald, who will read poems and speak about the experiences of the pandemic. 

In an era when we are re-evaluating how works of art come to be created, the Requiem has an intriguing history. Maurice Duruflé was among French composers commissioned in May 1941 by the collaborationist Vichy regime to write extended works for a monetary award, he decided on a Requiem but was still working on it when the regime collapsed in 1944. However, when Duruflé complete the work in 1947 (and it was published in 1948) he demanded (and received) payment for the work!

The online concert is free and will be accessible via the choir's website, online production is by Positive Note, and the choir is inviting donations to the Oxford Hospitals Charity, to allow the online audience to thank local health workers for the brilliant job they continue to perform for the people of Oxfordshire.

The choir's 125th Anniversary Season continues on 4 December 2021, when it performs Bach's Christmas Oratorio at the Sheldonian Theatre, with Benjamin Nicholas conducting the period instrument ensemble Florilegium. This will be rare performance of all six cantatas


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