Mozart's Requiem with Pinchas Zukerman | Program Notes

MASTERWORKS • 2014/15MOZART’S REQUIEM WITH PINCHAS ZUKERMANCOLORADO SYMPHONY PINCHAS ZUKERMAN, conductor and violinELIZABETH FUTRAL, sopranoSASHA COOKE, mezzo-sopranoISAIAH BELL, tenorKYLE KETELSON, baritoneCOLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director

Friday, November 7, 2014 at 7:30 pmSaturday, November 8, 2014 at 7:30 pmSunday, November 9, 2014 at 1:00 pmBoettcher Concert Hall

MOZART Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E major, K. 261MOZART Rondo for Violin and Orchestra in C major, K. 373MOZART Exsultate, jubilate, Motet for Soprano and Orchestra, K. 165 (K. 158a) Exsultate, jubilate: Allegro Fulget amica dies: Recitativo Tu virginum corona: Andante — Alleluja: Allegro

— Intermission —MOZART Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626 Introitus: Requiem aeternam Kyrie Sequenz Dies irae Tuba mirum Rex tremendae Recordare Confutatis Lacrimosa Offertorium Domine Jesu Hostias Sanctus Sanctus Osanna in excelsis Benedictus Osanna in excelsis Agnus Dei Communio: Lux aeterna

This weekend’s concerTs are graTefully dedicaTed To Bonfiels-sTanTon foundaTion

friday’s concerT is graTefully dedicaTed To delTa denTal of colorado

saTurday’s concerT is graTefully dedicaTed To frank and ginny leiTz,sunday’s concerT is graTefully dedicaTed To Mr. and Mrs. seTh weisBerg

PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIESPINCHAS ZUKERMAN, conductor and violin

Pinchas Zukerman has remained a phenomenon in the world of music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics. Devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has inspired younger artists with his magnetism and passion. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa. The name Pinchas Zukerman is equally respected as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue and chamber musician. Zukerman’s 2014-2015 season includes over 100 worldwide performances.

He completes his 16th and final season as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, with whom he tours the United Kingdom, and his sixth season as principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Additional orchestral engagements include the San Diego, Kansas City and Tucson Symphonies. Overseas collaborations with orchestras in Australia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan and Korea, recital appearances and tours with the Zukerman Trio round out the season. Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962 where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Zukerman’s extensive discography contains over 100 titles, and has earned him two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations.

Mr. Zukerman has recorded for CBS Masterworks, Philips, Angel, Deutsche Grammophon, CBC Records, Altara, Biddulph Recordings, Sony and BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal.Exclusive Representation: Kirshbaum Demler & Associates, Inc., 711 West End Avenue, Suite 5KN, New York, NY 10025. www.kirshdem.com

ELIZABETH FUTRAL, sopranoAmerican soprano Elizabeth Futral has established herself as one of the world’s leading sopranos. With her stunning vocalism and vast dramatic range, she has embraced a repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to world premieres. The 2014/2015 season finds Futral singing her first Mimi in La Boheme with Opera Birmingham, a double bill of Elle in Poulenc’s La voix humane and Nedda in I Pagliacci with Opera Columbus, and Miss Hedgehog in Tobias Picker’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox with Opera San Antonio. Concert performances include the gala opening of the Tobin Center in San Antonio, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer

of 1915 and Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the Roanoke Symphony, Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Mahler 4 with the Charleston Symphony, Handel arias with Music of The Baroque, and Previn’s Honey and Rue with the Pacific Symphony. She will also perform in recital at Louisiana State University and Washington & Lee University. During the 2013/2014 season Futral created two world premiere roles: Vera in Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne with the San Francisco Opera, and Alice B. Toklas in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music, and to the Houston Grand Opera as Desirée Armfeldt in A Little Night Music. She added Zdenka in Strauss’ Arabella with the Minnesota Opera, and sang Lucia di Lammermoor with Portland Opera and toured Haydn’s Creation with Music of the Baroque.

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SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 3

SASHA COOKE, mezzo-sopranoGrammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” (The New York Times) and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” (Opera News). Symphonic engagements of Cooke’s 2014-2015 season include appearances with Tugan Sokhiev and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony, Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony, Matthew Halls and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, and Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony, among others. In

recital, Cooke appears with pianist Julius Drake at Carnegie Hall and San Francisco Performances. Her operatic engagements include the world premieres of Laura Kaminsky’s As One at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Joby Talbot’s Everest with The Dallas Opera, as well as the role of Anna in Sir David McVicar’s production of Les Troyens at San Francisco Opera under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Other new works this season include pieces by Jake Heggie, Pierre Jalbert, and Kevin Puts, as well as collaborations with Jeremy Denk and the Miró Quartet. Cooke’s past season included performances with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Tokyo Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, MDR Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additional highlights included a production of Anna Bolena at the Opéra National de Bordeaux and recitals at Wigmore Hall and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.

ISAIAH BELL, tenorThe New York Times praised tenor Isaiah Bell for “a performance of haunting beauty, ideally depicting emotional distraction with ultimate economy and glowing vocal skill”, commenting on his performance as the Madwoman in Curlew River at Tanglewood. From British Columbia, Bell recently made his Lincoln Center debut for the Mostly Mozart Festival as Damon in Mark Morris’ production of Acis and Galatea conducted by Nicholas McGegan. Engagements during the 2014/2015 season include his debut at the Bethlehem Bach Festival, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Vancouver Symphony, Written

on Skin with composer George Benjamin conducting the Toronto Symphony, performances and a recording of L’Aiglon led by Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s Kent Nagano, Heart of Darkness for Opera Parallele in San Francisco and Messiah with the New Jersey Symphony and Orchestre symphonique de Trois Rivieres with Jacques Lacombe. Career highlights include Matthäus Passion with Nézet-Séguin and l’Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montréal, Britten’s Owen Wingrave at the Edinburgh Festival, and appearances with Orchestra London, Toronto’s Mendelssohn and Amadeus choirs; Against the Grain Theatre, and Winnipeg’s Canzona Choir in the works of Bach, Handel and Mozart. Bell was a member of the Emerging Artist Program of the Calgary Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria’s Young Artists Program, Atelier Lyrique de L’Opéra de Montréal, attended the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Victoria. He is also the composer and librettist of four operas and a number of song cycles. Winner of the vocal prize at the National Music Festival, his recital repertoire includes Schubert’s Winterreise and Schumann’s Liederkreis.

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KYLE KETELSEN, baritoneAmerican bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen is in regular demand by the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras for his vibrant, handsome stage presence and his distinctive vocalism. Ketelsen opens the 2014-2015 season as Leporello in a new production of Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and directed by Robert Falls. Other operatic highlights of his upcoming season include his return to Canadian Opera Company as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Cadmus in the company’s production of Semele at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as

performances of his acclaimed Escamillo in Carmen with the Minnesota Opera under the baton of Michael Christie and at the Chorégies d’Orange festival in France. Ketelsen’s 2013-2014 season featured his house debuts with Opernhaus Zurich as Méphistophélès in a new production of Faust and Staatsoper Berlin as the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, as well as his return to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Basilio in a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. He reprised two signature roles with the Bayerische Staatsoper as Escamillo and Leporello, the latter conducted by Louis Langrée, and highlights of his concert work include Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Ketelsen has won First Prize in several international vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation (Career Grant), the George London Foundation, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, the Sullivan Foundation, Opera Index, the MacAllister Awards, Fort Worth Opera, National Opera Association, Connecticut Opera, and the Liederkranz Foundation.

DUAIN WOLFE, director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Recently awarded two Grammys® for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Recording, Duain Wolfe is founder and director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and music director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. This year marks Wolfe’s 31st season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for over two decades. Wolfe, who is in his 21st season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and the late Sir George Solti on numerous recordings including Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which won the 1998

Grammy® for Best Opera Recording. Wolfe’s extensive musical accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline and the Michael Korn Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art. Wolfe is also founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years; the Chorale celebrated its 40th anniversary last season. For 20 years, Wolfe also worked with the Central City Opera Festival as chorus director and conductor, founding and directing the company’s young artist residence program, as well as its education and outreach programs. Wolfe’s additional accomplishments include directing and preparing choruses for Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, the Bravo!Vail Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with Pinchas Zuckerman as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 13 years.

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The 2014-2015 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 31st season for the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, the Music Director of the Denver Symphony, the chorus has grown over the past three decades into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each season.

The repertoire of the Chorus has been wide and diverse. Performing with all past/present Music Directors as well as countless guest conductors, highlights include Bernstein’s Mass with Marin Alsop, Kanchelli’s Styx with Jeffrey Kahane, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Duain Wolfe, and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem and Hough’s Missa Mirabilis with Andrew Litton.

In addition, the Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, where it performed with the New York, Philadelphia and Dallas Orchestras. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival, performing such diverse repertoire as Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony, Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, Britten’sPeter Grimes, Berlioz’ Requiem, and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, with conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murray Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman and Robert Spano.

The Colorado Symphony Chorus has appeared at select public and special events, and has collaborated with many renowned Colorado arts ensembles, including the Colorado Children’s Chorale, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. The chorus sang at the 1991 opening gala for the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre; provided choral support for international opera stars José Carreras and Andrea Bocelli; participated in the 1993 visit to Denver of Pope John Paul II.

The chorus has performed the works of a number of Colorado composers, including Samuel Lancaster and John Kuzma, and has had works written especially for it by CSO composers-in-residence Jon Deak and Libby Larsen. The CSO Chorus is featured with the Colorado Symphony on an upcoming Hyperion release of Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis, conducted by Andrew Litton. In July 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe led the chorus on a concert tour of Europe, presenting Verdi’s Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague.

Chorus members come from all over the Denver metro area. For an audition appointment, call 303.308.2483.

COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS


COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS

Soprano ICampbell, Lindsay R.Causey, DeneldaChoi, LeEtta H.Colbert, GretchenDaniels, Kaylin E.Dirksen, SarahDukeshier, LauraEmerich, Kate A.Gile, Jenifer D.Gill, Lori C.Graber, SusanHarpel, JenniferHedrick, ElizabethHendee, LaurenHinkley, Lynnae C.Hupp, Angela M.Jensen, ErikaJoy, Shelley E.Kirschner, Mary E.Kushnir, MarinaLook, CathyMaupin, AnneMoraskie, Wendy L.Porter, Barbara A.Ropa, Lori A.Ross, Kelly G.Saddler, Nancy C.Sladovnik, Roberta A.Solich, Stephanie A.Sowell, KellyStegink, Nicole J.Tate, JudyTravis, Stacey L.Wood, Linda K.

Soprano IIBenson, Claire E.Blum, JudeBowen, Alex S.Brauchli, Margot L.Christus, AthanasiaCoberly, Ruth A.Cote, Kerry H.Dakkouri, ClaudiaEberl, Lacey

Gross, Esther J.Harrold, RebeccaKraft, Lisa D.Nova, Ilene L.Nyholm, Christine M.O’Nan, Jeannette R.Rae, Donneve S.Rattray, RebeccaRider, Shirley J.Snyer, Lynne M.Von Roedern, Susan K.Walker, Marcia L.Weinstein, Sherry L.Wells. KirstenWoodrow, SandyYoung, Cara

Alto IAdams, Priscilla P.Boothe, Kay A.Brady, Lois F.Branam, Emily M.Brown, KimberlyBuesing, AmyConrad, Jayne M.Costain, Jane A.Daniel, Sheri L.Dunkin, Aubri K.Franz, Kirsten D.Gayley, Sharon R.Groom, Gabriella D.Guittar, PatHolst, Melissa J.Hoopes, Kaia M.Horle, Carol E.Kraft, DeannaMcWaters, SusanMeromy, LeahMurray, Cassandra M.Passoth, GinnyTannenbaum, ClairThayer, Mary B.Virtue, PatWise, SaraWood, Heather

Alto IICheatham, CamiCox, Martha E.Deck, Barbara R.Dominguez, JoyceEslick, Carol A.Golden, DanielaHoskins, HansiJackson, Brandy H.Janasko, Ellen D.London, Carole A.Maltzahn, JoannaMarchbank, Barbara J.Mendicello, Beverly DMillar, Kelly T.Nittoli, Leslie M.Scooros, Pamela R.Trierweiler, Ginny

Tenor IDougan, DustinGewecke, Joel C.Gordon, Jr., FrankGuittar, Jr., ForrestHassell, ChristopherHodel, David K.Moraskie, Richard A.Muesing, Garvis J.Nicholas, Timothy W.Reiley, William G.Snook, DavidStewart, Matthew C.Van Milligan, John P.Waller, RyanZimmerman, Kenneth A.

Tenor IIBabcock, Gary E.Bradley, MacDavies, Dusty R.Dixon, Stephen C.Fuehrer, Roger A.Gale, John H.Kolm, Kenneth E.Martin, Taylor S.Mason, Brandt J.

Milligan, Tom A.Ruth, Ronald L.Sims, Jerry E.Struthers, David R.Wolf, Jeffrey P.Wyatt, Daniel L.

Bass IAdams, John G.Branam, Travis D.Carlton, Grant H.Cowen, GeorgeDrickey, Robert E.Eickhoff, BenjaminGray, MatthewHesse, Douglas D.Hume, DonaldJirak, Thomas J.Mehta, Nalin J.Parce, Frank Y.Quarles, KennethRutkowski, Trevor B.Smith, Benjamin A.Thofson, ChadViatkin, AlexWilliams, Benjamin MWood, Brian W.

Bass IIFletcher, Jonathan S.Friedlander, BobGallagher, John A.Gibbons, DanIsraelson, Eric W.Jackson, Terry L.Kent, Roy A.Kraft, Mike A.Millar, Jr., Robert F.Moncrieff, KennethMorrison, Greg A.Nelson, ChuckNuccio, Eugene J.Phillips, John R.Skillings, Russell R.Swanson, Wil W.Virtue, Tom G.

Duain Wolfe, Chorus Founder and Director; Mary Louise Burke, Associate Chorus DirectorTravis Branam, Assistant Chorus Director; Taylor Martin, Intern ConductorEric Israelson, Chorus Manager; Barbara Porter, Assistant Chorus ManagerLaurie Kahler, Principal Accompanist


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SEMPLE BROWN DESIGN


MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTESWOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E major, K. 261Rondo for Violin and Orchestra in C major, K. 373

Mozart was born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg and died December 5, 1791 in Vienna. He composed these works in 1776 and 1781. Their premieres are unknown. The Adagio calls for strings and pairs of flutes and horns; the Rondo substitutes two oboes for the flutes. Last performance of both pieces by the orchestra was on April 27, 2011, with Itzhak Perlman as the soloist and Scott O’Neil conducting.

Antonio Brunetti, principal violinist of the archiepiscopal orchestra in Salzburg from March 1, 1776, was responsible for the writing of these two brief works for solo violin and orchestra. Mozart composed the Adagio (K. 261) late in 1776 as a substitute slow movement for the Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, since, according to a remark by the composer’s father the following year, Brunetti found the original second movement “zu studiert” — “too studied” — and asked Mozart to create something more simple and attuned to the popular style. (Actually, the Concerto’s beautiful original Adagio is crystal clear and immediately appealing. Abraham Veinus thought that “Brunetti certainly had peculiar taste.”) The replacement movement is also a lovely creation, with the music’s sustained melody for the soloist hovering above muted strings to make it almost an aria without words.

The Rondo (K. 373), Mozart’s last concerted work for violin, was written in April 1781. The composer, still in the employ of the Archbishop Colloredo, was visiting Vienna when he learned that Colloredo would be making an official stop in the imperial city. As part of the ceremonies surrounding the event, a concert was arranged at the Viennese home of the Archbishop’s father for April 8th, and Mozart was asked by Brunetti to provide a new violin piece for the program. Mozart responded with this charming Rondo, which is apparently an independent composition, since none of the string concertos shares its C major tonality. Less than a month after the Rondo was written, Mozart bolted from the musical establishment of the Archbishop to begin his Viennese adventure.)

oExsultate, jubilate, Motet for Soprano and Orchestra, K. 165

Mozart composed this motet at the beginning of 1773 in Milan. It was first heard in that city on January 16th in a performance by the castrato Venanzio Rauzzini. The score calls for oboes and horns in pairs, strings and organ. The piece was last performed on January 10-12, 1997, with Marin Alsop conducting the orchestra and Lisa Saffer, soprano soloist.

On October 24, 1772, Mozart and Papa Leopold left Salzburg for Milan, at that time under Austrian domination, to oversee the production of Wolfgang’s opera Lucio Silla. They arrived on November 4th. Mozart completed the opera before the end of the month and began rehearsals


on December 12th, though preparations were hampered by frequent cast changes and difficulties with facilities. Despite the mixed quality of its first production, Lucio Silla proved popular with the Milanese audiences (many of whom were Austrian, or at least would-be Austrian, and in tune with Mozart’s expressive northern musical language), and the new piece was repeated no fewer than 26 times during the Carnival season. The outstanding vocalist at the premiere was the eminent Roman castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, whose singing of the role of Cecilio stirred Mozart’s admiration. In appreciation, he wrote for Rauzzini the lovely motet Exsultate, jubilate. This delightful work, whose text is religious but not part of the regular liturgy, was a brilliant showpiece tailored to Rauzzini’s considerable vocal talents, which boasted florid fioritura, easy flexibility of range and limpid lyricism. The opening movement, Exsultate, jubilate (“Exult, rejoice”), with its instrumental introduction and interludes, its contrasting but balanced thematic groups and its technical display, supports Alfred Einstein’s evaluation that this work is a “vocal concerto.” Following a recitative (Fulget amica dies — “The friendly day glows bright”) comes a sweet song to the Virgin (Tu virginum corona — “Thou, O crown of virgins”) imbued with Mozart’s incomparable elegance of expression. The sparkling finale, based on the single word Alleluja, is one of the most delightful and familiar movements from Mozart’s sacred pieces, and it provides a luminous ending to this wonderful work of the sixteen-year-old Salzburg prodigy.

I. Allegro

Exsultate, jubilate, o vos animae beatae. Exult, rejoice, O happy souls.Dulcia cantica canendo, cantui vestro With sweet music, let the heavens resound,respondendo, psallant aethera cum me. making answer, with me, to your song.

Recitativo

II. Larghetto

Tu virginum corona, tu nobis pacem dona, Thou, O Crown of Virgins, grant us peace,tu consolare affectus unde suspirat cor. and assuage the passions that touch our hearts.

III. Allegro non troppo

Alleluja! Alleluia!

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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES

Fulget amica dies, jam fugere et nubila et procellae; exortus est justis inexspectata quies. Undique obscura regnabat nox. Surgite tandem laeti, qui timuistis adhuc, et jucundi aurorae fortunatae. Frondes dextera plena et lilia date.

The friendly day glows bright, now clouds and storms have fled. A sudden calm has arisen for the just. Everywhere dark night held sway before. But now, at last, rise up and rejoice, ye who are not feared, and happy is the blessed dawn. With full hand, make offerings of garlands and lilies.


Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626

Mozart worked on the Requiem during the last months of his life but it was still unfinished at the time of his death, on December 5, 1791. It was first heard at the Neukloster in the Viennese suburb of Wiener-Neustadt on December 14, 1793. The score calls for two basset horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, organ and strings. Last performed by the orchestra on January 28-30, 2011, with Bernard Labadie on the podium.

In early July 1791, while he was busy composing The Magic Flute, Mozart received a letter testifying to the glories of his music and alerting him that he would be having a visitor with a proposal on the following day. The letter was unsigned. The visitor, “an unknown, grey stranger,” according to Mozart, appeared on schedule and said that he represented the writer of the letter, who wanted to commission a new piece — a Requiem Mass — but added the curious provision that Mozart not try to discover the patron’s identity. Despite the somewhat foreboding mystery surrounding this venture, Mozart was in serious financial straits just then and the money offered was generous, so he accepted the commission and promised to begin as soon as possible. The Magic Flute, however, was pressing, and he also received at the same time another commission, one too important to ignore, for an opera to celebrate the September coronation in Prague of Emperor Leopold as King of Bohemia — La Clemenza di Tito, based on one of Metastasio’s old librettos — that demanded immediate attention. As if those duties were not enough to fill his thoughts, Mozart’s wife, Constanze, was due to deliver another baby at the end of the month. She had been in the local spa town of Baden since the beginning of June, trying to preserve what little health she had left after nine years of almost constant pregnancy since her marriage to Wolfgang in 1782, and Mozart went to bring her back to the city and to her doctors in mid-July. Just as he was entering the carriage for the trip, the “unknown, grey stranger” approached him, inquired about the progress of the Requiem, was told that it was going well, and left, apparently satisfied. On July 25th, Constanze gave birth to Franz Xaver Wolfgang, who became a composer and music teacher.

Mozart worked on the Requiem as time allowed. From mid-August until mid-September, he, Constanze and his pupil Franz Süssmayr, who composed the recitatives for Tito, were in Prague for the opera’s premiere. When they returned to Vienna, Schickaneder pressed Mozart to put the final touches on The Magic Flute, which was first staged on September 30th. Mozart’s health had deteriorated alarmingly by October — he complained of swelling limbs, feverishness, pains in his joints and severe headaches. On November 17th, with the Requiem far from finished, he took to his bed and was treated by Dr. Thomas Closset, one of Vienna’s best physicians, with the prescribed remedy for what was diagnosed as “miliary fever” (perhaps rheumatic fever or uraemia, though the evidence is inconclusive) — cold compresses and unremitting bleeding. Mozart became obsessed with the Requiem, referring to it as his “swan-song,” convinced that he was writing the music for his own funeral: “I cannot remove from my mind the image of the stranger. I see him continually. He begs me, exhorts me, and then commands me to work. I continue, because composition fatigues me less than rest. Moreover, I have nothing more to fear. I know from what I feel that the hour is striking; I am on the point of death; I have finished before I could enjoy my talent.... I thus must finish my funeral song, which I must not leave incomplete.”

Mozart managed to finish only the Requiem and Kyrie sections of the work, but sketched the voice parts and the bass and gave indications for scoring for the Dies irae through the Hostias. On December 4th, he scrawled a few measures of the Lacrymosa, and then asked three friends who had



come to be with him to sing what he had just written. He tried to carry the alto part, but broke into tears as soon as they had begun, and collapsed. A priest was called to administer extreme unction; at midnight Mozart bid his family farewell and turned toward the wall; at five minutes to one on the morning of December 5, 1791, he died. He never knew for whom he had written the Requiem.

Constanze, worried that she might lose the commission fee, asked Joseph Eybler, a student of Haydn and a friend of her late husband, to complete the score. He filled in the instrumentation that Mozart had indicated for the middle movements of the piece, but became stuck where the music broke off in the Lacrymosa. Franz Süssmayr, to whom Mozart had given detailed instructions about finishing the work, took up the task, revising Eybler’s orchestration and supplying music for the last three movements. Süssmayr recopied the score so that the manuscript would show one rather than three hands, and it was collected by the stranger, who paid the remaining commission fee.

The person who commissioned Mozart’s Requiem was Count Franz von Walsegg, a nobleman of musical aspirations who had the odious habit of anonymously ordering music from established composers and then passing it off as his own. This Requiem was to commemorate Walsegg’s wife, Anna, who died on February 14, 1791. The “grey stranger” was Walsegg’s valet, Anton Leitgeb, the son of the mayor of Vienna. Even after Mozart’s death, Walsegg went ahead with a performance of the Requiem, which was given at the Neukloster in the suburb of Wiener-Neustadt on December 14, 1793; the title page bore the legend, Requiem composto del Conte Walsegg. A few years later, when Constanze was trying to have her late husband’s works published, she implored Walsegg to disclose the Requiem’s true author. He did, and the score was first issued in 1802 by Breitkopf und Härtel.

Buried away in Otto Erich Deutsch’s Documentary Biography of Mozart is a fascinating but little-known tidbit of information that may (or may not) have been a factor in Walsegg’s commission. One of Mozart’s brothers in Freemasonry was Michael Puchberg, who earned many fond footnotes in the composer’s biography for his generous financial support to the composer (Mozart euphemistically called these emoluments “loans”) during Wolfgang’s last years. Puchberg lived and managed a textile firm at Hoher Markt 522. This address, it seems, just happened to be located in the Viennese house of Franz von Walsegg, and it is certainly not impossible that Puchberg encouraged Walsegg, in his curious way, to help Mozart in his time of distress.

It is difficult, and perhaps not even advisable, to dissociate Mozart’s Requiem from the circumstances of its composition — the work bears the ineradicable stamp of otherworldliness. In its sublimities and its sulfur, it appealed mightily to the Romantic sensibility of the 19th century, and continues to have a hold on the imagination of listeners matched by that of few other musical compositions. (Perhaps it is significant that the Requiem is performed annually in Vienna for the Feast of All Saints, the day after Halloween.) Manifold beauties of varied and moving expression abound throughout the Requiem: the ethereal strains of the Recordare; the vehemence of the Confutatis; the bitter plangency of the Lacrymosa; the old-fashioned, Bachian profundity of the fugal Kyrie; the feigned joy, so quickly terminated, of the Hosanna. The words of Lili Kraus, the Hungarian pianist closely associated throughout her career with the music of Mozart, apply with special poignancy to the wondrous Requiem: “There is no feeling — human or cosmic, no depth, no height the human spirit can reach — that is not contained in his music.”

©2014 Dr. Richard E. Rodda



I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (Chorus and Soprano)

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Rest eternal grant them, O Lord;et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine upon them.Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, There shall be singing unto Thee in Zion,et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. and prayer shall go up to Thee in Jerusalem.Exaudi orationem meam. Hear my prayer.Ad te omnis caro veniet. Unto Thee all flesh shall come.

II. Kyrie (Chorus)

Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.Christe eleison. Christ have mercy.Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.

III. Sequenz

1. Dies irae (Chorus)

Dies irae, dies illa This day, this day of wrathsolvet saeclum in favilla, shall consume the world in ashes,teste David cum Sibylla. so spake David and the Sibyl.Quantus tremor est futurus, Oh, what great trembling there will bequando Judex est venturus when the Judge will appearcuncta stricte discussurus! to examine everything in strict justice!

2. Tuba mirum (Soloists)

Tuba mirum spargens sonum The trumpet, sending its wondrous soundper sepulchra regionum, across the graves of all lands,coget omnes ante thronum. shall drive everyone before the throne.Mors stupebit et natura, Death and nature shall be stunnedcum resurget creatura when all creation rises againjudicanti responsura. to stand before the Judge.Liber scriptus proferetur, A written book will be brought forth,in quo totum continetur, in which everything is contained,unde mundus judicetur. from which the world will be judged.Judex ergo cum sedebit, So when the Judge is seated,quidquid latet apparebit, whatever is hidden shall be made known,nil inultum remanebit. nothing shall remain unpunished.Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? What shall such a wretch as I say then?Quem patronum rogaturus, To which protector shall I appeal,cum vix justus sit sicurus? when even the just man is barely safe?



3. Rex tremendae (Chorus)

Rex tremendae majestatis, King of tremendous majesty,qui salvandos salvas gratis, who freely saves those worthy of salvation,salva me, fons pietatis! save me, fount of pity!

4. Recordare (Soloists)

Recordare, Jesu pie, Recall, dear Jesus,quod sum causa tuae viae, that I am the reason for Thy time on earth,ne me perdas illa die. do not cast me away on that day.Quaerens me, sedisti lassus, Seeking me, Thou didst sink down wearily,redemisti crucem passus; Thou hast saved me by enduring the cross;tantus labor non sit cassus. such travail must not be in vain.Juste judex ultionis, Righteous judge of vengeance,donum fac remissionis award the gift of forgivenessante diem rationis. before the day of reckoning.Ingemisco tamquam reus, I groan like the sinner that I am,culpa rubet vultus meus, guilt reddens my face,supplicanti parce, Deus. Oh God, spare the supplicant.Qui Mariam absolvisti Thou, who pardoned Maryet latronem exaudisti, and heeded the thief,mihi quoque spem dedisti. hast given me hope as well.Preces meae non sunt dignae, My prayers are unworthy,sed tu bonus fac benigne, but Thou, good one, in pityne perenni cremer igne. let me not burn in the eternal fire.Inter oves locum praesta Give me a place among the sheepet ab hoedis me sequestra, and separate me from the goats,statuens in parte dextra. let me stand at Thy right hand.

5. Confutatis (Chorus)

Confutatis maledictis, When the damned are cast awayflammis acribus addictis, and consigned to the searing flames,voca me cum benedictis. call me to be with the blessed.Oro supplex et acclinis, Bowed down in supplication I beg Thee,cor contritum quasi cinis, my heart as though ground to ashes:gere curam mei finis. help me in my last hour.




6. Lacrimosa (Chorus)

Lacrimosa dies illa Oh, this day full of tearsqua resurget ex favilla when from the ashes arisesjudicandus homo reus; guilty man, to be judged:huic ergo parce Deus. Oh Lord, have mercy upon him.Pie Jesu, Domine, Gentle Lord Jesus,dona eis requiem. grant them rest.Amen. Amen.

IV. Offertorium

1. Domine Jesu Christe (Chorus and Soloists)

Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,Libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum deliver the souls of the faithful departedde poenis inferni from the pains of hellet de profundo lacu. and the bottomless pit.Libera eas de ore leonis, Deliver them from the jaws of the lion,ne absorbeat eas tartarus, lest hell engulf them,ne cadant in obscurum; lest they be plunged into darkness;sed signifer sanctus Michael but let the holy standard-bearer Michaelrepresentet eas in lucem sanctam, lead them into the holy light,quam olim Abrahae promisisti as Thou didst promise Abrahamet semini ejus. and his seed.

2. Hostias (Chorus)

Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, Lord, in praise we offer to Theelaudis offerimus, sacrifices and prayers,tu suscipe pro animabus illis, receive them for the souls of thosequarum hodie memoriam facimus: whom we remember this day:quam olim Abrahae promisisti as Thou didst promise Abrahamet semini ejus. and his seed.


V. Sanctus

1. Sanctus (Chorus)

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Holy, holy, holy,Dominus Deus Saboath! Lord God of hosts!Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.Hosanna in excelsis! Glory to God in the highest!

.2. Benedictus (Soloists)

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.Hosanna in excelsis! Glory to God in the highest!

VI. Agnus Dei (Chorus)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,dona eis requiem. grant them rest.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,dona eis requiem. grant them rest.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,dona eis requiem sempiternam. grant them eternal rest.

VII. Communio: Lux Aeterna (Soprano and Chorus)

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, May eternal light shine upon them, O Lord,cum sanctis tuis in aeternam, with Thy saints forever,quia pius es. for Thou art good.Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Lord, grant them eternal rest,et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine upon them.

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Mozart's Requiem with Pinchas Zukerman | Program Notes

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