French composer Maurice Duruflé is known primarily for music he wrote for the organ and this incredible Requiem. The piece was completed in 1947 and was written for solo voice, choir and organ or orchestra and organ. When the Los Angeles Master Chorale performs the Duruflé Requiem on Sunday night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, it will be the first performance of this work in 14 years. It is being performed here without orchestra.
Duruflé took inspiration from Gregorian chants. He was specifically interested in the Mass for the Dead. There are nine movements in the work which runs just approximately 40 minutes. The solo voices for this concert will be Jessie Shulman, mezzo-soprano and Chung Uk Lee, bass-baritone.
Jenny Wong, Associate Conductor of the LA Master Chorale, will lead the ensemble for this concert (which happens to fall on St. Patrick’s Day). The Duruflé Requiem has been a regular part of the LA Master Chorale’s programming for decades.
Also on the program is How to Go On by composer Dale Trumbore. This 35-minute work utilizes poetry from Barbara Crooker, Laura Foley and Amy Fleury. The work takes its title from Crooker’s Some Fine Day in which she wrote, “How can we go on, knowing the end of the story.” Trumbore uses music and the text of these three women to understand the process of grieving and healing. She considers How to Go On to be the choral work she’s most proud to have written.
We will be posting our interview with Jenny Wong on Tuesday, March 12th in which she discusses her work coming to understand the way Duruflé put his Requiem together and how much you can understand about a composer from his works. Come back to read her approach to his masterwork.
Main Photo shows Jenny Wong, Associate Conductor; Grant Gershon, Artistic Director; Shawn Kirchner, composer & former composer-in-residence; Eric Whitacre, artist-in-residence; Reena Esmail, composer; and Dale Trumbore, composer. Photo by Arnaud Pyvka/Courtesy of the LA Master Chorale