London: Vox Holloway concert - Faure Requiem, The Prophet

Vox Holloway make a welcome return to St James's Piccadilly on Sunday 26 November, after their triumphant performance of Handel, Purcell and Brough last Easter. Directed by Harvey Brough, they will be joined by a superb cast of soloists and players. They perform a programme which again mixes old and new - the Fauré Requiem, perhaps the most beloved choral piece ever, juxtaposed with Harvey Brough's setting of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

The Fauré Requiem in D minor is an all-time audience favourite, presented here in a new version for chamber orchestra by Harvey Brough, alongside Harvey's musical adaption of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

Fare's Requiem distilled some of the most beautiful melodies he ever composed. Although it was written around the time of his parents' deaths, he later declared: "My Requiem wasn't written for anything - for pleasure if I may call it that!' It is uplifting rather than mournful."

Gibran's masterpiece, The Prophet, was published in September 1923. The work begins with the mysterious prophet, Almustafa, preparing to leave the city of Orphalese, where he has lived for twelve years, to return to the island of his birth. The people of the city beg him not to go, but as he prepares to depart, the seeress, Almitra, asks him to share his truths. He talks about all human life: love, marriage, children, giving, reason and passion, joy and sorrow, concluding with his famous words on death, before he boards his ship and vanishes into the mist. Gibran illustrated The Prophet himself, adding to the power of a work which made him the bestselling poet of the twentieth century.

'When vou reach the mountain top,
Then vou will start to climb
And when the earth shall claim your limbs
Then shall you truly dance.'

(On Death, from The Prophet)

To book tickets click HERE