Fauré Requiem

In an unprecedented musical event, the Choir of College Street Congregational Church will partner with the renowned Canadian Juno Award-winning ensemble L’Harmonie des saisons to present, for the first time in North America, Gabriel Fauré’s monumental Requiem as the composer originally envisioned, with a chapel-sized vocal and instrumental ensemble performing on period 19th century instruments. This unique performance will take place on November 5, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. at College Street Congregational Church, Burlington, Vermont.

The concert promises to transport listeners back to the musical ambiance of Paris in both the Romantic and Baroque periods, as the ensemble will also present one of North America’s first performances of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s exquisite Messe des morts (Requiem Mass), also performed with instruments of the period. Additionally, they will return us to the 21st century with the world premiere of a new sacred composition (The Souls of the Righteous) by Montréal’s William Kraushaar, an award-winning film composer.

These sacred works are all appropriate to the occasion of All Saints’ Sunday in the church year, November 5. Internationally-acclaimed vocal soloists featured in this program come to Burlington from Santiago-Chile, Boston, Vancouver, and Montréal. Fauré’s Requiem, a sacred masterpiece widely celebrated in the world of classical music, will be presented in its original “church version,” a rare opportunity for modern audiences to experience the work as Fauré intended when it was first conceived for worship in 1887. The period instrument ensemble’s unique timbre and sonority promise to provide a remarkable and transformative listening experience, offering a fresh and intimate perspective on this timeless composition.