The Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus is closing out its season with a large-scale collaboration, enlisting the voices of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (directed by Amherst’s Nikki Stoia) for a performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem, a work about which the French composer wrote, “I see death as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.”
Conducted by PVS music director Paul Phillips, the combined ensembles will be joined by soloists soprano Kristin Sampson (pictured) and baritone Ricardo Rivera.
The concert is set for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall and will be preceded by a talk by Marianna Ritchey of the UMass music faculty at 6:45.
Also on the program: Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to “Der Freischütz” and Gustav Mahler’s song cycle for soprano and baritone, “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”).
$25 general admission; $28 at the door; $20/$25 seniors; $7/$6 students and youth under 18. pvsoc.org