Bach Choir of Wellington: Duruflé Requiem & ANZAC Day Music

ANZAC Day is a time for remembrance and reflection commemorating all those who serve, have served, or have given their lives in wars and conflicts around the globe. It is a time for reverence and introspection. This concert programme marks the occasion with a mix of uplifting and poignant smaller works by the likes of Parry, Tallis, and Elgar, and concludes with the incomparable Requiem of Maurice Duruflé.

Much of the music in this concert would not exist if it were not for poets and storytellers skilfully capturing moods and feelings of an entire event in just a few lines. The concert opens with an excerpt from Elgar’s ’With Proud Thanksgiving’, based on Laurence Binyon’s poem ’For the Fallen’. C.H.H. Parry’s setting of John Gibson Lockhart’s ’There is an Old Belief’ transports the listener out of this realm into the vast mysteriousness of eternity with lush harmonies and soaring lines. Two contemporary works in the concert feature the writings of Sullivan Ballou and Siegfried Sassoon. Ballou’s work, ’The Last Letter’, stands as a testament to the strength and courage needed in time of war and reminds us of the terrible cost war brings upon those not on the frontlines. Sassoon’s poem, ’Everyone Sang’, represents the sombreness of the tremendous loss suffered in war and the joy and exuberance felt when warring ends.

The Bach Choir of Wellington is joined by Douglas Mews (organ and piano).