Mozart: Requiem & Coronation Mass
The best and most well-known compositions in Mozart's prodigious
output were created during the last 10 years of his life. Both the
Requiem and the Coronation Mass were written during this period.
Mozart was asked to compose a Requiem by Count Walsegg, as a
memorial for his wife who had died in February 1791. The Count wanted two
memorials in her honour. One was a sculpture and the other was the Requiem, to
be played each year on the anniversary of her death. Mozart was already in
poor health at the time and later became convinced he was writing it for his
own funeral. He died in December 1791 before he could complete the
work. The requiem was played for the first time four days after his
death at Mozart's own funeral.
After Mozart's death, his wife, Constanze, tried to find
composers willing to complete the work and asked three others before turning to
Süssmayr, who was a student of Mozart's and had been working on the Requiem
together with him.
The completed work was finally delivered to the Count in early
December 1793 and was finally performed in a memorial for the Count's
wife on December 14, 1793.
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The Mass in C Major "Coronation" K.317 is another of Mozart's
well-known sacred works. Its use of wind instruments and its length
suggest that it was written as a shorter Solemn Mass.
It was completed a few years earlier, in March 1779 when Mozart
was 23 years old, for the Easter Day service on 4th April 1779. The
nickname derives from the fact that it was originally thought to have been
composed for the annual crowning ceremony of an image of the Virgin
Mary at Mariaplain near Salzburg, but it is more likely to have been used at
the coronation of Leopold II in August 1791 or certainly for Leopold's
successor Francis I in August 1792.
Tickets: R60-00
Available from choir members
or from Lynette Boerrigter, 012 331 0926 or 082 927 1065