On That Distant Day

Name: On That Distant Day
Start: 2025-10-18T16:00:00-04:00
Location: National Presbyterian Church

Schedule

Sat, 18 Oct, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

National Presbyterian Church | Washington, DC

Maurice Duruflé | Requiem, Op. 9
Frank Martin | Cantate pour le 1er Août
Palestrina | Missa Papae Marcelli
The Thirteen performs works of remembrance and celebration with Duruflé’s poignant Requiem and, in honor of the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth, the composer’s most renowned work, the Missa Papae Marcelli. Palestrina’s mass represents the high point of Renaissance polyphony, with a purity of counterpoint, deeply affecting dissonance, and clear text setting—qualities that formed the basis of an enduring myth that through this work, Palestrina saved Church music. Duruflé’s 1941 Requiem, also based on Gregorian chant, was begun under the Vichy occupation but completed after the liberation of France. Paired with Swiss composer Frank Martin’s celebratory 1941 Cantate pour le 1er août (the text of which inspires this concert’s title), this concert is sure to “transfigure the listener” (The Washington Post). Princeton University Chapel organist Eric Plutz, hailed as a “master craftsman… sensitive, emotional, stunningly accurate, and spectacularly musical… world-class” (The Diapason) joins The Thirteen in this tour-de-force performance.
This program is made possible by a generous gift from Sara Fein.