33rd International Ankara Music Festival Opening Concert

The Saygun Philharmonic Choir performed Gabriel Fauré's Pavane in F sharp minor Op.50 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus in F major K.618 with the Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Orhun Orhon at the opening concert of the 33rd International Ankara Music Festival. The concert program notes prepared by Ahu Köksal and Serkan Özçiftçi for these works are as follows: 

Gabriel Fauré, Pavane, Op.50 in F sharp minor

The French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), who pioneered the impressionism movement with the harmonies and color effects he used, composed Pavane in F-sharp major, Op.50 for piano in 1887, which he dedicated to Countess Greffulhe (1860-1952). However, the orchestral arrangement, also by the composer, became more popular. The rhythmic structure of the piece is taken from the pavane, a Spanish court dance of the same name.

The poem used in the piece is by the French symbolist poet Robert de Montesquiou, also known as the “prince of aesthetes”, whose poems are described as “untranslatable” into another language. In this poem, Montesquiou speaks aggressively and sarcastically about the cycle of love leading to hatred and curse.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus, K.618, D Major

Mozart (1756-1971) composed the work for chorus and string orchestra on June 17, 1791, about six months before his death. It was first performed at the Corpus Christi Festival in Baden in 1791, conducted by Anton Stoll, a close friend of Mozart's and the choirmaster to whom the work was dedicated.

In this small work of only 46 bars, Mozart used simple eight-measure phrases and soft dynamics, writing the choral parts for orchestra simultaneously. The parts sing the same text together in almost the same rhythmic structure. The third phrase of the piece comes in F Major, a tone far from D Major for the Classical Period. While the highest notes of the piece are sung, the word sung is “death” and it is thought that the soul reaching heaven is depicted at this point. Although Mozart was never on good terms with the church, the religious works he wrote managed to transcend his time and carry Mozart's loving world to the present day.