On Saturday evening, April 13, 2019, BCS presented two of the great French choral-orchestral works of the 20th century: Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, op. 9, and Francis Poulenc's Stabat Mater, FP 148.The Requiem, Duruflé’s longest and most substantial work, was composed in 1947 at the end of World War II. Like Fauré's Requiem, the work focuses not on hell and damnation, but instead on images of consolation in the face of loss. The chants of the Roman Catholic Missa pro defunctis (Requiem Mass) form the melodic basis of the work, ancient melodies enriched by gentle harmonies and tender orchestral colors. Duruflé explains: “This Requiem is not an ethereal work which sings of detachment from human concerns. It reflects, in the unchanging form of Christian prayer, the anguish of man faced with the mystery of his final end.
