This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The Palm Sunday snowstorm scored a knockout punch on events all over the region; and one of the most estimable was a performance of the musically magnificent and haunting Duruflé Requiem. It had been prepared by Christ Church Cathedral’s choir for the parish’s Palm Sunday festival service, only to be put on ice, as it were, in anticipation of the congregation’s being diminished because of the weather.
In an entirely appropriate gesture, however, this soaring requiem will be given life, perhaps more abundantly, on Sunday (April 28) at 5 p.m., as a memorial to those who died in Boston and in West, Texas, during the punishing week of April 15.
Requiem, Latin literally for “rest,” or more poetically, rest in the sense of peace, is a form of the Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul of an individual or a group. History’s most luminous musical geniuses, ancient and modern have embraced it: Mozart and Britten, Cherubini and Penderecki, Verdi and, well, even Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Maurice Duruflé’s requiem was composed in honor of his father, the architect Henry Duruflé, and was given its premiere in 1947, conducted by Roger Désormière. A requiem is an appropriate offering for Palm Sunday; it provides acknowledgement of the fact that while Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was celebratory, it foreshadowed tragedy to come, namely death by the grotesque executionary practice of crucifixion.
Duruflé is often called an impressionist, but as is true with so many of drafty pigeonholes, the value of such description is of genuinely desultory value. Although influenced by another so-called impressionist, Claude Debussy, Duruflé as much or more affected and inspired by Gregorian chant, and the sonorities of chant inform this requiem, making its performance in a soaring space such as Christ Church especially affecting.
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Bryan Miller and bass Daniel Zipperer join conductor William Partridge, conductor, and Andrew Peters, organist, for this performance of the requiem, to be given during the service of evensong.
Dean Mike Kinman will preside and the names of those who died at Boston and West will be read. There is, of course, no charge for the service. Proceeds from a voluntary offering taken during the service will be given to the American Red Cross.
"When we postponed the performance and rescheduled it for this Sunday, it seemed odd to us that we would be doing a requiem during the Easter season," Kinman said. "Now as death has intruded into this season of resurrection, we are honored to offer this beautiful music in memory of those who have perished in these two tragedies ... and to give people an opportunity to support important relief work in both Boston and Texas.”
The landmark Christ Church Cathedral is on 13th Street, between Olive and Locust Streets in downtown St. Louis, and is across the street from the newly renovated Central Library.