Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz
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Akademiechor Luzern
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Chœur de Chambre de l’Université de Fribourg
(chorus master Pascal Mayer)
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Emilio Pomàrico
conductor
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Soloists from the Hochschule Luzern – Musik
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Barbara Locher
soprano
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Liliane Zürcher
contralto
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Rolf Romei
tenor
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Michel Brodard
bass
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Eörs Kisfaludy
narrator
Jean-Luc Darbellay (*1946)
Requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra
Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)
"La Danse des Morts". Oratorio after Paul Claudel for soloists, narrator, chorus and orchestra
In 1938 Paul Claudel, inspired by the depictions of the danse macabre in Basle by Hans Holbein the Younger, wrote an oratorio text for the composer Arthur Honegger. What left him so fascinated was the Grim Reaper, displayed as a merry minstrel with fiddle and flute. Honegger set Claudel's words with psalmody and cantus firmus, with folk songs and revolutionary chants, with frenzied round dances and harrowing laments. This concert will contrast his work with the Requiem composed in 2005 by Jean-Luc Darbellay, a Berne musician and medical doctor who decided in favour of the Latin liturgy 'with its compelling dramatic structure and its universal message'. The 'Schweizer Musikzeitung' compared several movements of this large-scale work, which requires a chorus of eight to 12 voices, to the ethereal beauty of the Duruflé Requiem. Others it called 'frescoes in sound' recalling the violent imagery of Hieronymus Bosch.