The mainstay of the programme is Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, surely the best-known of his large-scale works. Composed in the late 1880s (and with revisions in the following decade), the work is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, orchestra and organ. Also in the programme are the suite from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Castor et Pollux, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum, a showy and sprited work that is particularly renowned for its joyful prelude – adopted by the Eurovision Song Contest as its theme tune!