A BRACKNELL chamber choir embarks on its 2024/25 season of music with a concert in Crowthorne.
Thames Voyces will be performing the Duruflé Requiem and his Four Motets, as well as a selection of Parry’s Songs of Farewell, and Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine.
Jack Thompson, the group’s new musical director, said: “ I have immensely enjoyed getting to know the choir individually and collectively since the start of September.
“I look forward with anticipation to the concert in November, to all our other performances this season, and to a rewarding and happy time together in the months and years ahead.”
Peter Anderson from Thames Voyces, said: “Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem was commissioned as a symphonic poem from the French Vichy Government during World War Two, but wasn’t completed before the government fell.
“Written in the post-war period it’s inspired by Gregorian chant – a sublime piece of music very apt for a concert around the time of Remembrance.
“His Four Motets were written later, around 1960, and also reflect Durufle’s love of Gregorian Chants.”
Though Hubert Parry and Gabriel Fauré were contemporaries, the two pieces the choir will be performing come from opposite ends of their careers.
“Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine was written when he was just 19,” said Peter.
“Based on a French translation of part of the Latin text for Matins, it won him first prize.”
Parry’s Songs of Farewell were written around the end of World War One.
“Six well-known poems contemplate the loss of Parry’s Royal College of Music pupils on the battlefield, including George Butterworth,” he explained.
“Parry himself died just two years after the six motets were completed.
“One was sung at his funeral, and another in recent years, at the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II.”
Thames Voyces is keen to hear from singers who would like to join them, especially basses.
They rehearse at Jennett’s Park Primary School, Bracknell, on Tuesday evenings during term time between 7.45pm and 9.45pm.
Their first concert of the season will take place at the Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Crowthorne, on Saturday, November 16, at 4pm.
For information, and to book tickets, visit: thamesvoyces.org.uk
