SCUNA history » Concerts » 1977 - Second Term
Poster | Transcription | Review | Reconstructed Programme | Acknowledgement | Notes
The Australian National University Choral Society presents
Duruflé Requiem Corrette Laudate Dominum and other works by Poulenc, Jannequin and LeJeune
Soloists: Margaret Sim (soprano) Bryan Dowling (bass) Sue Flannery (alto) Conductor: Brian Hingerty
Dining Hall, University House, Friday, 29th April, 8.15pm1
Tickets: $3.00, $1.50 (students and pensioners) available at door. Wine and cheese
Last weekend in Canberra was a good time for French music: after Debussy and Bocsa on the chamber music program of Saturday night, the ANU Choral Society provided an evening of French choral music in the Hall of University House on Sunday night.
To open there were two pleasant examples of the French chanson by Jannequin and Le Jeune which acted as a curtain-raiser for the principal work of the first half, the Requiem by the 20th century composer Maurice Duruflé.
Although he was born in 1902, Duruflé has been a very slow and highly self-critical composer, and although this Requiem is only his Opus 9, it was conceived and written during the late 1940s and early 1950s so far as I have been able to ascertain.
It is a lovely, serene conception, owing much to the spirit of Fauré's Requiem, reflective in mood and luminous in texture. With organ accompaniment, played by Barbara McRae, it was given a competent performance which realised much of the feeling and beauty of the music, and the ANU Choral Society should be commended for seeking out works like this outside the normal repertoire.
A similar work, although from a composer who is happily a little better known, was the equally lovely Un Soir de Neige by Francis Poulenc. Its four short movements, so typical of the delicate tonal colourations of Poulenc's choral style, offer a distinct challenge to any body of singers - that the performance was so enjoyable was a compliment to the conductor, Brian Hingerty, and to the effort of his singers to capture the essence of the music.
The final work of this interestingly varied program was a very odd Laudate Dominum by the minor French composer of the 18th century, Michel Corrette. It sounds like a musical joke, and one would suspect that Corrette was a fictitious name except that the music reference books substantiate him as a French organist and composer.2
Strangely enough, the program did not mention conductor, soloists or organist: in the Duruflé and Corrette works the soloists were Margaret Sim, Sue Flannery and Bryan Dowling.
- from the Canberra Times, June 1977
Clément Janequin (c.1480 - 1558) | ?Chant des oiseaux |
Claude LeJeune (1528/30 - 1600) | A ce joli mois |
Maurice Duruflé (1902 - 1986) | Requiem (Organist: Barbara McRae) |
Interval | |
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) | Un Soir de Neige |
Michel Corrette (1709 - 1795) | Laudate Dominum |
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Thanks to Maggie Shapley, ANU Archivist, for providing scans of SCUNA material held in the ANU Archives.
I haven't put the original scan of this poster (over 5 Mb) online, but if you would like a copy please me.
1This concert was originally scheduled for 29 April 1977. According to "Monica Hastings-Blythe" in Erato #26: "The second term began with a concert of French music, which someone managed to leave over from first term." [See AICSA's Erato Archive.] The delay was probably caused by preparations for the second Canberra Intervarsity Choral Festival, which took place in September 1977.
2Corrette's Laudate Dominum was based on Vivaldi's Spring Concerto.
3Source of the reconstructed programme: the poster, the review, and a tape of the concert given to me by Gary Hovey.