Le Monde dans l'attente du Sauveur

‘Le Monde dans l'attente du Sauveur’
(The world in waiting for its Saviour)

This first movement from Dupré’s ‘Symphonie-Passion’ op.23 opens with a bleak and barren landscape, populated by a yearning and suffering humanity. In December 1921, at a concert in the Wanamaker Auditorium, Dupré improvised a four-movement work on submitted plainchant themes which became the basis for the Symphonie which he finished on returning to Paris. This first movement uses the plainchant ‘Jesu redemptor omnium’ which gently creeps in after the agitated ‘chaos’ opening. It eventually becomes the dominant theme. ‘Jesu redemptor’ is an Office Hymn used at Vespers during Christmas. However, the movement has become associated with the season of Advent and is often played as the closing voluntary at Advent Carol Services.