Name: Fauré Requiem
Start: 2025-04-26T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-04-26T20:30:00-04:00
Location: First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston, MA, USA

$Faur\u00e9 Requiem$

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco conducts the First Church Boston Choral Ensemble and a chamber orchestra in the luminous melodies of Fauré and Haydn.
About this Event

"My Requiem wasn't written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that!" -Gabriel Fauré

Come and experience the magical and luminescent melodies of Gabriel Fauré. From his beloved Requiem, Op 48, to the ever-popular Cantique de Jean Racine. We will be performing the 1893 Version of John Rutter’s reconstruction of Fauré’s original more intimate concept of the Requiem, scored for only the lower strings of the orchestra, giving it an unusual depth and warmth, along with 2 horns, harp and organ. A single violin soloist is used in two movements. Led by Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, conductor and Director of Music, sung by members of the First Church Boston Choral Ensemble and guests along with a full chamber orchestra. Featured soloists are baritone Ron Williams and soprano Alecia Batson.

The program opens with Haydn’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 11, his last keyboard concerto. This ebullient work opens with a percolating classical-style vivace. Haydn’s lyricism is known for its elegance and emotional depth which is on full display in the beautiful aria-like second movement and finally closing with the witty Rondo in Hungarian style. Robert Winkley is our piano soloist.

The Cantique de Jean Racine is a special arrangement by Taylor Scott Davis, commissioned by Voces8 during the pandemic in 2021, and is one of the most beautiful chamber orchestra arrangements for the piece I’ve ever heard. Here, as in the Haydn, we enjoy the full complement of strings along with harp, horns and oboe.

This event is one you won't want to miss, so please mark your calendars! Let the soothing melodies of Fauré's masterpiece transport you to a place of serenity and reflection.

The concert is free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the Collins Family Fund, the First Church Boston Fund for Special Music, and a grant from the Music Performance Trust Fund. Donations to support the ongoing music program of First Church in Boston welcome.

-Gigi Mitchell-Velasco