Essential Music for Peace: Fauré’s Requiem & Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum

Essential Music for Peace:
Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum & Fauré’s Requiem 

Daniel Taylor, director 
Adrian Butterfield, guest director
Matthew Larkin, organ solo

Join The Schola Cantorum, in collaboration with instrumentalists from Tafelmusik and Theatre of Early Music, for an inspiring evening of music dedicated to peace and reflection in a turbulent world. Under the direction of renowned guest conductor Adrian Butterfield, this special performance pairs the serene beauty of Fauré’s Requiem with the triumphant hope of Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum—a moving tribute to the enduring power of music to uplift the human spirit.

PROGRAM

Utrecht te Deum

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) 

1. We praise Thee, O God
2. To Thee all Angels cry aloud
3. To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim
4. The glorious Company of the Apostles
5. When thou took’st upon thee to deliver man
6. We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge
7. Day by day we magnify thee

       VIII. And we worship thy name

       IX. Vouchsafe, O Lord

       X. O Lord, in thee have I trusted

Sasha Koukarina, Erica Harvey, Belén Fazio Gonnet, Jiajing Zhou, Kayla Ruiz, soprano, 

Nadia Zbogar, Christian Masucci-Facchini, alto

Jean-Paul Feo, Jeremy Lau, Jacob Thomas, Eyal Stopnicki-Udokang, tenor 

Henry Paterson, bass

Intermission

Requiem, Op.48

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)

1. Kyrie
2. Offertory
3. Sanctus
4. Pie Jesu
5. Agnus Dei
6. Libera me

7. In Paradisum

Matthew Larkin, organ, Erica Harvey, soprano, Henry Paterson, bass 

Schola Cantorum

Belan Fazio Gonnet, Erica Harvey Sasha Koukarina, Zige Lin, Emma MacNeil, Kayla Ruiz, Jiajing Zhou, soprano

Christian Masucci-Facchini, Nadia Zbogar, alto

Jeremy Lau, Jacob Thomas, Eyal Stopnicki-Udokang, tenor 

Henry Paterson, bass

Theatre of Early Music

Valerie Gordon & Emily Eng, violin
Samuel Rothermel, viola
Felix Deak, cello
Anthea Conway, flute
Gillian Howard & Chris Vishy, oboe
Norman Engel, trumpet
Christopher Bagan, harpsichord
Mathew Larkin, organ

Alexandra Delle Donne, Rebecca Genge, Anais Kelsey-Verdecchia, Sarah Shelley, soprano
Peter Koniers & Ryan McDonald, alto
William Salinas Crosby, Owen McCausland, Anthony Varahidis, tenor
Dan Bevan Baker & Devyn Pope, bass

PROGRAM NOTES

In the years after its opening, St Paul’s was regularly used for the celebrations of Marlborough’s military victories over the French. Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate continued to be performed, but in 1709 William Croft wrote a more up-to-date setting for a thanksgiving service after the Battle of Malplaquet, with an orchestra of two oboes, two trumpets and strings, and a larger, more expansive structure, with a greater emphasis on fully developed separate movements. Handel seems to have taken Croft’s work as the immediate model for the Te Deum and Jubilate he wrote for the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, though it is likely that he also knew the Purcell Te Deum. The Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate was first heard at a public rehearsal in the cathedral on 5 March 1713, when a newspaper reported that ‘many Persons of Quality of both Sexes’ attended, and that the music was ‘much commended by all that have heard the same, and are competent Judges therein’. The peace negotiations dragged on, and thanksgiving eventually took place on 7 July.

The Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate was a turning point in Handel’s career, as it was for English church music. It was the first major piece of religious music Handel wrote to English words, and it is the earliest choral work by him that remained in the repertory: it was performed in St Paul’s during the annual Festival of the Sons of the Clergy every other year (alternating with the Purcell Te Deum) until 1743, when it was replaced by Handel’s Detting Te Deum. Although it needs only one more instrument than the Croft setting—a solo flute—it is more spacious in its conception and more varied in its material. Indeed, it is particularly attractive because it is so varied: it ranges through F sharp minor, A minor, F major, D minor, C major and G minor as well as the expected ceremonial D major, and a surprising amount of it explores introspective areas of feeling. The Jubilate is a much shorter text than the Te Deum, so it allowed Handel to expand the size of his movements, and to demand more virtuosity from his vocal and instrumental soloists. He reworked the Jubilate in 1717/18 for the much smaller forces available in the Duke of Chandos’s chapel at Cannons near Edgware in Middlesex.

from notes by Peter Holman © 1998

Understandably, the subject of death has tended to inspire composers to give of their best, particularly when writing major works such as settings of the Requiem Mass—the solemn liturgy sung in the Roman Catholic Church to honour the departed, to plead for merciful consideration of their sins, and to ask for rest for their immortal souls, (the word ‘requiem’, indeed, is best translated as ‘rest’).

Fauré was born on 12 May 1845 at Pamiers, in the département of Ariège in the south of France. At the age of nine he entered the École Niedermeyer in Paris where he trained as a church musician, receiving a thorough grounding in the plainsong and modal harmony which were to become a feature of his mature style. From the piano classes held there by Saint-Saëns he acquired a knowledge of contemporary trends in composition. He graduated in 1866 and became in turn organist of St Sulpice and choirmaster (eventually organist as well) of the church of the Madeleine. In 1896 he was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, but he tired of his career as organist, choirmaster and private teacher and found fulfilment only at the age of sixty when the Conservatoire made him its Director. He died in Paris on 4 November 1924 at the age of seventy-nine.

In spite of Poulenc’s waspish dismissal of Fauré’s Requiem as ‘one of the few things I hate in music’, it is indisputably the composer’s most popular work. He began to plan it in 1887 when he jotted down some random ideas in a series of pocket-books. These books reveal that the Requiem was conceived, and the first part of it written down, in C minor—a tone lower than the three separate versions which were eventually completed. There is a rather pedestrian attempt at a ‘Pie Jesu’ in A minor (it returns a little too readily and often to its key-note), but Fauré rejected this in favour of the beautiful melody in B flat major which found its way into all the three versions (1888, 1893, 1900).

Among settings of the Requiem Mass, Fauré’s is unique. It does not adhere to the time-honoured liturgical text, and as the composer saw death as a gentle release from earthly life, the horrors of the Day of Judgement are almost disregarded. The ‘Dies irae’, whose torments Verdi represented in the most vivid terms, is reduced to a brief interpolation in the ‘Libera me’ (‘Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death’), and the work is serene and contemplative, the text purposely chosen to emphasize the word ‘requiem’.

Fauré had no particular reason for writing the Requiem, but while it was in the early stages of composition his mother died, and the first performance, which took place at the Madeleine on 16 January 1888, was a timely memorial. Only five movements were ready: ‘Introit and Kyrie’, ‘Sanctus’, ‘Pie Jesu’, ‘Agnus Dei’ and ‘In paradisum’. The forces required were modest: a mixed choir (with divided tenors and basses), a treble or soprano soloist, and an orchestra comprising lower strings (violas, cellos and double basses), harp, timpani and organ. There is a single violin to play a solo in the ‘Sanctus’, and the organ part is crucial and continuous.

In 1889 Fauré completed the ‘Offertoire’ (part of which he later re-used in the ninth of his piano Preludes, opus 103 and revived a ‘Libera me’ originally written twelve years earlier as an independent piece for baritone voice and organ. Horns, trumpets and trombones were added to the orchestra, the horns having a particularly important role in the ‘Libera me’ and an effective fanfare in the ‘Sanctus’. A baritone soloist was now needed for both the added sections, and this seven-movement version was presented, again at the Madeleine, on 21 January 1893.

It was not until 12 July 1900 that the third, and final, version of the Requiem was performed at the Trocadéro in Paris, with woodwind added to the orchestra and a full body of violins in the ‘Sanctus’, ‘Agnus Dei’, ‘Libera me’ and ‘In paradisum’. But the extent of Fauré’s involvement in this final version is unclear. The orchestra has become unwieldy and various liberties have been taken with the scoring, possibly by Fauré’s pupil Roger-Ducasse. It is hard to believe that a composer of such fastidious judgement as Fauré would have given it his approval. The 1893 version recorded here would seem the most convincing compromise.

The work has been described by Jean Chantavoine as ‘a paradisical imagining with no trace of torment or of doubt, scarcely even of mourning’. Temperamentally, Fauré could not tackle a detailed picture of Hell in a ‘Dies irae’, or portray a terrifying scene of anguish. His primary concern was the beauty of his music. The terrors of the afterlife are hardly more than touched upon, and the untroubled mood of the final ‘In paradisum’ differs from, say, a work like The Dream of Gerontius in the absence of any notion of Purgatory. The music of Fauré’s Requiem evokes comfort, dwelling on the fundamentally good nature present in everything.

Wadham Sutton © 1989

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Utrecht Te Deum, G.F. Handel

We praise thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting.

To Thee all Angels cry aloud: the Heavens and all the powers therein.
To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy Glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee;
The Father of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true, and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter.

Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting  Son of the Father.

When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man: Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.

We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood.

 

Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.

Day by day we magnify Thee; and we worship Thy Name, ever world without end.

 

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us: as our trust is in Thee.

 

O Lord, in Thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.

Requiem, Gabriel Fauré

I. lntroitus - Kyrie

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine

et lux perpetua luceat eis

Grant them eternal rest, o Lord,

and may perpetual light shine upon them

Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion

et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem

Thou, o God, art praised in Sion, and unto Thee

shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem.

Exaudi orationem meam

ad te omnis caro veniet

Hear my prayer,

unto Thee shall all flesh come.

Kyrie eleison,

Christe eleison

Kyrie eleison.

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy

II. Offertorium

O Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex Gloriae

libera animas defunctorum

de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu

O Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex Gloriae

libera animas defunctorum de ore leonis

ne absorbeat eus Tartarus ne cadant in obscurum.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

deliver the souls of all the faithful departed

from the pains of hells and from the bottomless pit.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

Deliver them from the lion's mouth,

nor let them fall into darkness,

neither the black abyss swallow them up.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex Gloriae

ne cadant in obscurum.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

neither the black abyss swallow them up.

Hostias et preces tibi Domine, laudis offerimus

tu suscipe pro animabus illis

quarum hodie memoriam facimus

Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini eus.

We offer unto Thee this sacrifice of prayer and praise

Receive it for those souls

whom today we commemorate.

Allow them, o Lord, to cross from death into the life

which once Thou didst promise to Abraham and his seed.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex Gloriae

libera animas defunctorum

de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu

ne cadant in obscurum.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

deliver the souls of all the faithful departed

from the pains of hells and from the bottomless pit.

nor let them fall into darkness.

Amen

III. Sanctus

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth

Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua

Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth

heaven and earth are full of Thy glory

Hosanna in the highest.

IV. Pie ]esu

Pie Jesu, Domine, dona eis requiem

dona eis requiem sempiternam requiem

Merciful Jesus, Lord, grant them rest

grant them rest, eternal rest.

V. Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi

dona eis requiem

O Lamb of God, that takest aways the sin of the world,

grant them rest

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi

dona eis requiem

O Lamb of God, that takest aways the sin of the world,

grant them rest

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi

dona eis requiem, sempiternam requiem.

O Lamb of God, that takest aways the sin of the world,

grant them rest, everlasting rest.

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine

Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,

quia pius es

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis

May eternal light shine on them, o Lord,

with Thy saints for ever,

because Thou are merciful.

Grant them eternal rest, o Lord,
and may perpetual light shine on them.

VI. Libera me

Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna

in die illa tremenda

Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem

Deliver me, o Lord, from everlasting death

on that dreadful day

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire

Tremens factus sum ego et timeo

dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira

I quake with fear and I tremble

awaiting the day of account and the wrath to come.

Dies illa dies irae

calamitatis et miseriae

dies illa, dies magna

et amara valde

That day, the day of anger,

of calamity, of misery,

that day, the great day,

and most bitter.

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine

et lux perpetua luceat eis

Grant them eternal rest, o Lord,

and may perpertual light shine upon them.

Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna

in die illa tremenda

Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem

Deliver me, o Lord, from everlasting death

on that dreadful day

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire

VII. In Paradisum

In Paradisum deducant Angeli in tuo

adventu suscipiant te Martyres

et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem

May the angels receive them in Paradise,

at they coming may the martyrs receive thee

and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat

et cum Lazaro quondam paupere

aeternam habeas requiem

There may the chorus of angels receive thee,

and with Lazarus, once a beggar,

may thou have eternal rest.

Aeternam habeas requiem

May thou have eternal rest.

BIOGRAPHIES

Founded in 2012 by Daniel Taylor, the University of Toronto Schola Cantorum aims to present the brilliant early choral and instrumental repertoire from across the centuries to a new audience. The group's interpretations strive to recreate the original performances of musical works – interpretations led by the energy and insights of the gifted students themselves - in the belief that historical performance ideals and knowledge of the old world are essential for creating music anew. The Schola Cantorum includes students from all levels of study with students representing many voice studios in the faculty. Canada has many university choral ensembles, however the Schola Cantorum is the only large-scale group using period instruments and historically informed performance practices to reveal the beauty of Baroque and early repertoire.

Unequaled collaborations and bespoke partnerships lay the foundation for the Historical Performance Department. A place of inspiration and unparalleled collaborative opportunities. Our Apprentice Concerts offer students the chance to play and sing side by side with the finest artists in the world. We embrace our shared values of equal access to opportunity and genuine inclusion through voices heard anew and historical works presented with varied perspectives. We continue our collaborations with renowned scholars such as Dame Emma Kirkby, Nancy Argenta, Charles Daniels, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars, Les Arts Florissants and Voces8 alongside sought-after diverse international guest performers such as Indigenous Artists-in-Residence Andrew Balfour and Jonathon Adams, Conductor Jordan de Souza, Deepa Johnny as we well hosting the first online masterclasses of Barbara Hannigan, Angela Hewitt, Lynne Dawson as we seek to share our music love in thoughtful engagement with the community and world around us. From the Kammerchor Stuttgart, NY Clarion, the Gabrieli Consort to Voces8, from Joyce DiDonato, Andrea Haines, Ingrid Attrot, Dominique Labelle, Tracy Dahl, Mary Morrison, Avery Amereau, Stephanie Blythe, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Monica Huisman, Robin Blaze, Michael Chance, to Mel Braun, Daniel Lichti, John Relyea,  Angela Hewitt, Patrick Jordan, David Fallis, Patricia Ahearn, Martin Haselboeck, Kent Trittle, Braynerd-Blyden Taylor, Nic McGegan and Ben Heppner, we have you covered with sought-after solo artists, educators and leading ensembles. All of this is anchored by the leadership of Daniel Taylor, Christopher Bagan, John Abberger, Jean MacPhail and Mary Morrison.

Adrian Butterfield sang as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral, read Music at Trinity College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music and has appeared on numerous stages across the world as a violinist, director and conductor.  He is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Festival and Associate Director Emeritus of the London Handel Festival and has led the gut-string quartet, The Revolutionary Drawing Room, for over 25 years. His baroque ensemble, The London Handel Players, performs regularly at Wigmore Hall and throughout Europe and North America making their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014. They have made a number of recordings of music by Handel and his contemporaries for Somm Records. His latest solo recording, of Bach’s sonatas for harpsichord and violin with Silas Wollston, was released by Somm Records in early 2023 and LHP’s new Handel disc, ‘Total Eclipse’, was released on the same label in October ‘23. He is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London, gives masterclasses in Europe and North America and has taught at Dartington, at the Belgrade Baroque Academy and Pro Corda Baroque. He also directs an annual baroque project with the Southbank Sinfonia. He has directed ensembles such as the London Mozart Players, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra and the Croatian Baroque Ensemble. Plans for the 2025/26 season include his role as guest Faculty in the Historical Performance Area at the University of Toronto, and directing programmes of Bach Cantatas and multi-instrument concertos at Wigmore Hall, Handel’s Chapel Royal Anthems at the King’s Chapel of the Savoy in London, Handel’s Orlando at UK Festivals, and Bach’s St. John Passion at the Tilford Bach Festival.

Organist, conductor, composer, and educator Matthew Larkin has been at the forefront of concert, liturgical, and ensemble choral and keyboard performance in Canada for thirty years. He received his early musical training as a cathedral chorister and undertook advanced studies at the University of Toronto (as Organ Scholar of Trinity College), and the Royal College of Music. He has since served in a leadership role in the music of several prominent Canadian churches, including St. James Cathedral (Toronto) and Christ Church Cathedral (Ottawa). He has served as Music Director of the Ottawa Choral Society, Canada’s most historic philharmonic choir, and he founded Ottawa’s Caelis Academy Ensemble in 2017, which now stands among Canada’s finest chamber choirs. As organist, pianist, and collaborator, he has performed throughout North America, Europe, and China, and as soloist with several of Canada’s orchestras including that of the National Arts Centre, the Toronto Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony. His discography is extensive, and he is both a Naxos and ATMA recording artist. Currently, Matthew serves as Custodian of Music at Ottawa’s St. Andrew’s Church, is Resident Conductor of New Opera Lyra, and keeps a very full diary of concert events. 

Daniel John Taylor, O.C. is praised by the critics and audience alike as ‘Canada’s star countertenor’. Since his early career debuts at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, and the Rome Opera, his voice has been hailed as an “unwavering spirit carried aloft above the tumult of earthly existence” (The Toronto Star). The Times says the “beauty of his voice will stop you in your tracks,” while The Guardian calls him “part angel, part man.” Broadway.com recently referred to Daniel as: "The beloved singer, leading figure in the field of Opera, Voice and Early Music and perhaps Canada's most popular voice teacher." ‘Perhaps Additional operatic engagements have included the San Francisco Opera, the Welsh National, Opéra de Montréal, the Canadian Opera Company and his many roles at the Teatro Colon. Taylor has performed with the Edinburgh Festival, the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, the symphonies of Madrid, Dallas and Toronto and with Tafelmusik. He has been heard in recital at the BBC Proms and at Wigmore Hall in London; at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Zürich’s Tonhalle; in China’s Forbidden City; at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris; and at Carnegie Hall. Canada’s most prolific recording artist, Taylor may be heard on over 120 albums and in films on labels including DG Archiv, Warner, DECCA and SONY. Taylor’s productions have been recognized with numerous awards including a GRAMMY Award, Diapason d’Or, BBC Music Awards, JUNO Award, Quebec’s ADISQ and the Grammophon Award among many others. He also appears on Cirque du Soleil recordings of Totem and Avatar. He was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, the National Medal for Music and named as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cristina Prats Costa, orchestra manager

Peter Koniers, librarian

Eric Chow, concert office supervisor

Ticket Prices: $40 Adult, $25 Senior, $10 Student. 
University of Toronto students with a valid T-Card are admitted free at the door (space permitting, some exceptions apply). No ticket reservation necessary.