Sacred and Sublime | Leeds Festival Chorus

Composed in 1947 by Maurice Duruflé, a virtuoso organ recitalist and music professor in Paris, the spellbinding Requiem is the work of a constantly self-critical perfectionist who revised it twice. The version to be performed by the Chorus is elegant, restrained and above all, subtle. It is also sensuous, in spite of the composer’s debt to the work of Medieval monks who sang Gregorian chant melodies.

Every note is suffused with feeling. Duruflé made it known that he did not create an ethereal composition detached from human concerns. He stated that his Requiem reflects ‘the anguish of man faced with the mystery of his final end’. Perhaps the Pie Jesu, which is at the centre, provides the most moving moments, expressing joyful and sorrowful emotions.