Saturday, April 26, 2025
– 7:30pm –
Zion Lutheran Church – Clinton
– The Symphony will be joined by our friends in Clinton’s RiverChor for a performance of Mozart’s final work, his Requiem. Begun in late 1791, it was unfinished at Mozart’s death in December of that year, and a student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, completed the work from Mozart’s notes. The work is scored for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The orchestra will also perform a Mozart Divertimento in F major, composed in 1772 for string orchestra.
Program notes:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791
Requiem
Mysterious circumstances surrounding Mozart’s Requiem have infused the work with
an aura of intrigue and romance (especially as provided by Hollywood), almost as
compelling as the music itself. In the summer of 1791 Mozart was sent an anonymous
request for a Requiem to honor Count Von Stuppach’s late wife. The count, an amateur
musician himself, was known to commission works from well-known composers and
then claim them as his own. Chronically short on cash, Mozart accepted the dubious
commission and immediately put it aside to work on Die Zauberflote and La Clemenza
di Tito, while also overseeing a production of Don Giovanni.
By the fall of 1791, Mozart returned to his Requiem in failing health, leaving the work
unfinished 2 months later when he died, probably of rheumatic fever. The sudden,
severe illness may, indeed, have led Mozart to believe he was writing his own requiem.
Although legend makes for great theater, there’s no truth in the cinematic poisoning of
Mozart by his jealous rival Antonio Salieri. Facing crushing debt, Mozart’s wife,
Constanze, asked one of his students, Franz Xavier Sussmayr to complete the work.
Debates continue today over Sussmayr’s claims of authorship of the later
movements. Allegedly, Constanze handed over a sheaf of papers to Sussmayr
containing further sketches by Mozart himself, yet without proof, many continue to argue
over who wrote what. Beethoven himself asserted “If Mozart did not write this music,
then the man who wrote it was a Mozart”. More recent composers and scholars have
attempted to complete Mozart’s score, including musicologist Robert Levin who
presented his ‘completed’ version in 1991.
Whatever the version, Mozart’s Requiem reflects a composer whose heart was in
opera. It fits very well in a liturgical context, but the music’s dramatic and expressive
range takes it well beyond a ritual function. The result is intensely personal, and, in
sections such as the Dies irae, both terrifying and furious. Despite its drama and
urgency, the profound beauty of the music overcomes any sense of desolation. Using a
smaller orchestra also reflects Mozart’s less apocalyptic attitude toward death. In a
letter to his father, Mozart speaks of death as “the true goal of our
existence…something very soothing and consoling”. Containing many stylistic elements
that Mozart likely would have developed further had he not died weeks before his 36th
birthday, his Requiem leaves tantalizing glimpses of where his genius would have led, a
beginning rather than an ending.
Compiled by Karin Anderson-Sweet