Oratorio Society performs Requiem on April 1

The Phipps Oratorio Society will perform John Rutter’s Requiem on Sunday, April 1, at 2 p.m. at Bethel Highlands Church, 504 Frontage Road.

The performance will be conducted Thomas Dahle, Oratorio Society music director, and will also include an aria for orchestra and soprano by J. S. Bach, from Bach’s Cantata #202, as well as the Oratorio Society Orchestra performing “Andante Festivo” by Jean Sibelius and Charles Ives’s “The Unanswered Question.”

The soloist for the Bach aria and Rutter’s Requiem will be soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw.

A lyrical masterpiece of hope and comfort, Requiem combines the melodic simplicity of Bach with a distinctly modern sensibility by “the world’s greatest living composer … of choral music,” John Rutter. The acclaimed composer is well known from his large repertoire of beautiful Christmas music. Rutter’s Requiem has seven movements. One of the inner movements is a beautiful setting of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd,” probably the best known, best-loved, and most consoling text of the Psalms. Several of the movements have been set in English using text from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church. Stylistically, Rutter writes in a combination of musical styles. He says, “It was particularly important in this case to write something that could be appreciated by people everywhere.” He was not interested in setting the full Requiem text with the grandiose passages designed to generate terror at the fear of the Last Judgment (such as are found in the Berlioz and Verdi settings), but rather to follow Fauré’s example by selecting passages from the liturgical text that are quieter and more contemplative.

General admission tickets are $22 for adults and $10 for students of all ages. Reservations may be made by contacting The Phipps ticket office at (715) 386-8409.

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