“Beautiful,” is how Red Deer Symphony Orchestra director Claude Lapalme describes the music in this Saturday’s Lest We Forget concert.
Honouring veterans and commemorating the fallen will be done to the evocative and stirring The Lark Ascending, a Vaughn Williams composition for violin and chamber orchestra, performed at the Gaetz Memorial United Church in Red Deer.
Although it’s disputed whether the original poem by George Meredith, or the musical piece it inspired, was written with soldiers in mind, Williams did serve in the British army during the First World War, and later took to writing more spiritual-sounding compositions than in the pre-war period.
His The Lark Ascending conjures imagery of flight and “souls rising,” and has long been tied to Remembrance Day, said Lapalme.
Concertmaster Naomi Delafield is the featured violinist for this “very reflective, very soulful, very dream-like piece,” said Lapalme.
It’s one of the favorites of all English compositions, he added — and a hit when the orchestra performed it about 20 years ago in the spring.
This time, the orchestra is making it the centrepiece of a Remembrance-themed concert that will also feature two works by Gabriel Faure: Requiem and Le Cantique de Jean Racine.
Guest vocalists Roderick Bryce, Hannah Pagenkopf and the Spiritus Chamber Choir, led by music director Tim Shantz, will be performing verses in French and Latin for both compositions. English translations will be provided.
Le Cantique is a tribute to a famous playwright during the reign of King Louis XIV. Lapalme said it was written as a matin, or prayer, that monks recite when they awaken.
The Requiem is a “remarkable” piece of music that is much loved because it avoids the stereotypes of most other works written for funerals, he added. There’s no booming apocalyptic section.
Faure has instead “taken the edge off” and written “a lullaby for the dead that is comforting to their souls and their loved ones.”
Reflective passages from prayer books are woven into this music.
“It is so beautiful. That’s the only way to describe this concert … it’s all about beauty,” said Lapalme, who feels this concert won’t so much challenge the audience as transport it.
“You feel spiritually cleansed after a concert like this.”
Veterans and their families can receive a preferred ticket price for the concert by using the code HEROES at the time of purchase. Tickets are available from the Black Knight Ticket Centre.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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