MARLBORO-The Brattleboro Concert Choir presents "In Paradisum: Music of Gabriel Fauré," featuring the Requiem, "Cantique de Jean Racine," and "Tu es Petrus" with orchestra.
The concerts, scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, May 4, and 4 p.m. Sunday, May 5, will be performed at Persons Auditorium on Potash Hill on the former campus of Marlboro College.
"Our 'In Paradisum' concerts are meant to be a balm and a respite in stressful and troubling times," Musical Director Jonathan Harvey said in a news release. "All three pieces on the program are by French Romantic Gabriel Fauré, whose music has an indefinable transcendent beauty."
He explains composer Aaron Copland wrote of Fauré's music that "those aware of musical refinements cannot help admire the transparent texture, the clarity of thought, the well-shaped proportions. Together they constitute a kind of Fauré magic that is difficult to analyze but lovely to hear."
Harvey said the central piece of the program is Fauré's Requiem. "Usually, musical Requiems are quite dark, fearful, and almost violent, since they are drawn from the Roman Catholic service for the dead," he said. "Fauré's is different. The core of the piece is for it to act as a comfort to those who are still living."
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, $10 for youths, and free for under 12. They may be purchased via bmcvt.org, 802-257-4523, or [email protected].
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.