Lecture: The genesis of a Requiem
Jérôme Lejeune, musicologist and artistic advisor to the Stavelot Festival
Composed "for nothing", as he himself put it, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem was first written for the funeral services at La Madeleine church in Paris, where Fauré was successively Chapel Master and then organist. Before becoming the concert work we know so well, this Requiem went through several versions. Jérôme Lejeune presents here the various phases in the development of this masterpiece and its place in the context of French sacred music at the turn of the century...
Gabriel Fauré: Conference on the genesis of his Requiem