Sunday’s concert “Happy Deliverance” will conclude the BSA’s 65th Season. The title of the concert comes from a quote by Gabriel Faure speaking of his Requiem in d minor, which we will perform that afternoon- “It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above rather than as a painful experience…I have sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ. I wanted to write something different”. And thus he did.
Keeping in mind the importance of programming architecture across a season let alone at this five year mark for me serving as Music Director, why end the season with the ethereal notes fading away as Faure’s Requiem quietly floats off to heaven? Why not, like last year with Beethoven’s Symphony #9 or the year before with Orff’s Carmina Burana with a huge, mighty blast? This Sunday’s concert will begin with a heralding flare of Shostakovich’ s Festival Overture highlighting our strong brass, nimble woodwinds, precise percussion and as ever, hard working strings. The tuneful Schubert Symphony #8 will conclude the first half, though it has no conclusion with only two movements in existence it is known as the “unfinished”.
But returning to Faure’s Requiem, I found it most enlightening that he composed it “…for nothing, for fun if I may be permitted to say so!” he tells us. Begun in 1885, he worked on many different versions tinkering with it over a fifteen-year period. His Requiem, unlike Mozart’s emotionally dramatic or Brahms’ humanistic approach, is about peace and delivering the souls of the faithfully departed. Certainly music can wash away the dust of everyday life from the soul, but to glimpse into heaven- while still here on earth? It might just be possible for the pure of heart while listening this Sunday. As the German philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche pointed out “The Kingdom of Heaven is a condition of the heart- not something that comes upon the earth or after death”. So the concert and season will conclude with a time of reflection, tranquility and comfort- undoubtedly in these most uncertain times for us as a nation and worldwide, we could all use a little solace right now.
I certainly hope you will join us at the conclusion our season Sunday at 4:00 PM as we gather the forces of the choir, vocal soloists and orchestra of the Bremerton Symphony Association. The preconcert chat beginning at 3:00 PM will be the kick off to the new season with brochures for 2008-2009 hot off the press and subscriptions sales available. Hope to see you, at the symphony!
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