Fauré Requiem with Ludovic Morlot 

Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto 38’

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

Oliver Messiaen 
O sacrum convivium 4’

Gabriel Fauré
Requiem 36’

James Ehnes violin
Rhian Lois soprano
Neal Davies bass-baritone
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Ludovic Morlotconductor

The concert in Swansea is being broadcast live on BBC Radio Cymru; the concert in Cardiff is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast in Radio 3 in Concert. They will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds, where you can also find podcasts and music mixes. Visit bbc.co.uk/now for more information on future performances.

1  Allegro non troppo (cadenza: Joachim) 
2  Adagio 
3  Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace 

James Ehnes violin

Johannes Brahms was a 19-year-old unknown when he met Hungarian violin virtuoso and composer Joseph Joachim, just 21 but already making waves across Europe. Despite the mismatch in their reputations, the pair became mutual admirers, trusted collaborators and fast friends. It was Joachim who introduced Brahms to Robert and Clara Schumann, a landmark meeting (and not just because Brahms would later fall in love with Clara). It was Joachim to whom Brahms turned for advice on composition. And it was Joachim for whom Brahms eventually wrote his sole Violin Concerto, informed by his friend’s technical guidance.

Brahms positions soloist and orchestra as near equals, subverting expectations that the orchestra is just there to provide ballast for the soloist’s flights of virtuosic fancy. After its premiere, conducted by Brahms himself in Leipzig on New Year’s Day 1879, the pianist-conductor Hans von Bülow is supposed to have said that this is a concerto ‘not for but against the violin’ (the remark is also attributed to Joseph Hellmesberger, conductor of the work’s Viennese premiere) – but time has been kinder to it, and it’s now a staple of the Romantic violin repertoire. 

The huge first movement threatens to overwhelm all that follows, not least when it’s performed with the fearsome cadenza Joachim wrote for it (as we hear it today); but Brahms assures a soft landing with a second-movement Adagio that grows from unassuming beginnings (its theme unexpectedly stated by the oboe) to expansive, enveloping warmth. All dug-in double-stops and Gypsy flair, the closing Allegro is as close as Brahms gets to letting down his hair.

_{Programme note © Will Fulford-Jones
Further Listening: Janine Jansen; Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Sir Antonio Pappano (Decca 4788412)
Further Reading: Brahms Malcolm MacDonald (OUP)}

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

BBC National Chorus of Wales

Despite his devout Catholicism, Olivier Messiaen felt his music was too complex to be performed in a liturgical context. He wrote only one motet intended to be sung during the Catholic Mass. O sacrum convivium was composed in 1937 and first performed on 17 February 1938 at the Sainte Trinité Church where the composer was organist. The Latin text, possibly by St Thomas Aquinas and an inspiration for many Renaissance composers, describes the joy of Holy Communion. 

This short motet is in a favourite key of Messiaen’s – F sharp major, which he associated with ‘superhuman love’. It is scored for four-part unaccompanied choir and is full of rich, chromatic harmonies. While there are moments of passionate intensity, the music is predominantly contemplative.

_{Further Listening: Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha (Chandos  CHAN10842)
Further Reading: A Messiaen Companion Peter Hill (Faber)}

1 Introitus and Kyrie 
2 Offertoire 
3 Sanctus 
4 Pie Jesu
5 Agnus Dei
6 Libera me
7 In Paradisum

Rhian Lois soprano
Neal Daviesbass-baritone
BBC National Chorus of Wales

Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is one among several remarkable 19th-century settings of the Requiem Mass. The composer began writing it in 1887, possibly in response to his father’s death. Its original five-movement version was scored for choir, soprano/treble soloist, organ and a chamber sized orchestra without brass, woodwind or violins (bar one soloist in the ‘Sanctus’). The premiere took place on 16 January 1888 at Paris’s La Madeleine church, where Fauré was organist. As the venue did not permit female singers, boy trebles replaced sopranos. 

A second version, with the orchestra expanded to include brass, was performed at the Madeleine on 21 January 1893. This contained two new movements featuring baritone solos: the ‘Offertoire’ and ‘Libera me’. The final, full-orchestral version was prepared during 1899 and 1900 at the suggestion of the composer’s publisher Julien Hamelle, and was intended for concert rather than liturgical use. The premiere took place in Lille on 6 May 1900, followed by a Paris performance at the Trocadéro on 12 July as part of the Exposition Universelle. Both featured a mixed-voice choir and soprano soloist, which Fauré seems to have preferred in a concert context.  

In mood, the piece is very different from the dramatic, passionate Requiem settings by, say, Hector Berlioz (1837), Giuseppe Verdi (1874) or Antonín Dvořák (1891). Unlike these composers, Fauré omits the ‘Dies irae’, ‘Tuba mirum’ and ‘Lacrimosa’ with their bleak visions of the Last Judgement, and ends with the optimistic ‘In Paradisum’ from the Order of Burial. Fauré was an agnostic who never lost his respect for religion: he considered that the work expressed his perception of death as ‘a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience’. 

Melodic beauty and emotional restraint are the Requiem’s key characteristics. Striking features of the first three movements include the imposing unisons that open the solemn ‘Introitus’, the chant-like baritone solo in the pensive ‘Hostias’ section of the ‘Offertoire’ and the dialogue between voices and violins in the dreamy ‘Sanctus’ with its contrastingly fanfare-like ‘Hosanna’. The ‘Pie Jesu’ is an exquisitely simple soprano solo; the expansive ‘Agnus Dei’ contains a brief reminiscence of the work’s opening. The penultimate movement, ‘Libera me’, strikes a rare note of disquiet through its funereal baritone solo and dramatic choral outbursts. But calm is soon restored in the concluding ‘In Paradisum’, where ethereal high voices, organ, harp and strings conjure up a serene vision of heaven.

_{Programme notes © Kate Hopkins
Further Listening: Grace Davidson; William Gaunt; London Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble; Tenebrae/Nigel Short (LSO Live LSO0728)
Further Reading: Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life Jean-Michel Nectoux (CUP)}

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Biographies

Ludovic Morlot conductor

Ludovic Morlot became Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in September last year and will conduct for a minimum of 11 weeks a season with the orchestra. 

His élan, elegance and intensity on stage have endeared him to audiences and orchestras worldwide. During his eight years as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra he pushed the boundaries of traditional concert programming, winning several Grammys. 

He is now Conductor Emeritus in Seattle, and in 2019 he was appointed Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic, with which he has had a close relationship over many years. He was Artistic Director of the National Youth Orchestra of China (2017 21) and Chief Conductor of La Monnaie (2012–14). 

He has conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin, Czech, London, Los Angeles and New York Philharmonic orchestras, Boston and Chicago Symphony orchestras, Dresden Staatskapelle and Budapest Festival Orchestra, among many others.He has also appeared extensively in Asia and Australasia, notably with the Seoul Philharmonic and the Melbourne and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony orchestras. Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Wien Modern, Edinburgh and Aspen. 

He has a strong commitment to supporting emerging talent and regularly conducts students at the Colburn Conservatory. In 2021 he sat on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition and conducted students at the Royal Academy in London and at the New England Conservatory in Boston, as well as making his annual visit to the Aspen Festival. 

He originally trained as a violinist, before studying conducting at the Pierre Monteux School in the USA, and then in London at the Royal Academy and subsequently at the Royal College of Music. He is Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle and a Visiting Artist at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. 

James Ehnes violin

James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. His combination of virtuosity, lyricism and unfaltering musicality have led to regular appearances at the world’s most celebrated concert halls. 

Recent highlights include concerts with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London, NHK and San Francisco Symphony orchestras and Munich Philharmonic. This season he continues as Artist-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada. 

Alongside his concerto work, he maintains a busy recital schedule, performing regularly at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, as well as at the Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier, Dresden and Aix-en Provence festivals. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the Ehnes Quartet and the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. 

He has an extensive discography and has won many awards, including two Grammys, three Gramophone Awards and 11 Juno Awards. In 2021 he was announced as the recipient of the Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards, which celebrated his most recent contributions to the recording industry, including a lockdown project entitled ‘Recitals from Home’. 

James Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin aged nine, and made his orchestral debut aged 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and the Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a visiting professor. 

He plays the ‘Marsick’ Stradivarius of 1715.

Rhian Lois soprano

Welsh soprano Rhian Lois has become known for her versatility across a range of repertoire. This season she makes notable house debuts including Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) for Hamburg State Opera and Pamina (The Magic Flute) for Montpellier Opera, as well as her role debut as Juliette (Die tote Stadt) for English National Opera. Highlights on the concert platform include returns to BBC National Orchestra of Wales for today’s concert and, in May, Stanford’s Te Deum and Elegiac Ode. 

Recent highlights include Janine/Ofwarren (Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale) for ENO; Angelica (Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce) at Theater Magdeburg; Governess (The Turn of the Screw), filmed with OperaGlass Works; Gretel and Musetta (La bohème) for Scottish Opera; Oriana (Amadigi) for Garsington Opera; Jerusha (Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park) in the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre; Max (Where the Wild Things Are) for Shadwell Opera and at the work’s Russian premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre; and Nannetta (Falstaff) at the Grange Festival, among others.

On the concert stage, she has performed at the International Opera Awards Foundation and the Enescu Festival. 

On the concert platform her repertoire ranges from Handel and Mozart, via Mendelssohn and Brahms, to Stravinsky.

She is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Royal College of Music and National Opera Studio.

Neal Davies bass-baritone

Neal Davies studied at King’s College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music and won the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

In the opera house this season he sings Zebul (Jephtha) with Music of the Baroque under Dame Jane Glover; Sergeant (The Yeomen of the Guard) for English National Opera; and Papageno (The Magic Flute) for Welsh National Opera. On the concert stage he sings Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC under Fabio Biondi; Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem with the MDR Radio Orchestra under Howard Arman; Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives with the Bergen Philharmonic under Sir Mark Elder; Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy; and a Scottish tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Dunedin Consort. 

Last season saw a return to ENO and a recording for Scottish Opera. On the concert platform he sang Ariodate (Serse) on tour with The English Concert; The Creation with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Mozart’s Requiem in Tokyo; Messiah with Les Violons du Roy; and a European concert tour of Israel in Egypt with the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Recent appearances have included Peter Grimes with the Bergen Philharmonic, Theodora with Arcangelo at the Vienna Konzerthaus, a tour of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Hallé, and the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms. His wide ranging discography has garnered awards from Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, as well as a Grammy.