I’m deleighted to be singing as a soloist in Duruflé’s Reqiuem this All Souls’ Day.

Maurice Duruflé began composing his requiem in 1941, when France was largely under Nazi occupation. The Vichy Regime approached several French composers to request substantial compositions, ostensibly in order to preserve French culture in the face of occupation. Duruflé was one such composer.

Duruflé based his requiem on the Gregorian Missa pro defunctis, the first composer known to do so since Victoria in the sixteenth century. Having been a chorister at Rouen Cathedral from the age of ten, Duruflé was already immersed in Gregorian Chant. Under Nazi occupation, with culture and traditions under threat, it strikes me as very natural that Duruflé should turn to music that had been sung for many centuries, especially when it was the music of his childhood. In this sense, I feel that Duruflé’s requiem is not only a traditional requiem to mark a death (it was dedicated to his father), but also a requiem for France herself: for those traditional parts of French culture and tradition that were under threat.

I will sing the mezzo-soprano solos in a performance with the Leidse Cantorij, with conductor Hans Brons, organist Willeke Smits, and cellist Ruud Meester.

Sunday, 5th November, 17:00, Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden
Free entrance, no reservations necessary