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Regular listeners of Classic FM and Radio 3 cannot failed to have
noticed
that 2006 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang
Amadeus
Mozart. One of the world’s most popular composers, his music
continues to delight audiences and performers alike and the
Langcliffe Singers offer music-lovers in Settle the chance to hear
some of his best loved works.
The choir are joined by soloists Amelia Whiteman (soprano), Kathryn
Cook (alto), David del Strother (tenor) and David Costley White
(bass) and
organist Michael Hodges for performances of the evergreen Requiem
and Vesprae Solennes de Confessore K339 while the choir alone begin
the concert with the Ave Verum, a magical choral miniature.
The works span Mozart’s
working life with the Vespers coming from his time spent in his
native Salzburg and Munich between 1779 and 1780 and the Requiem,
famously, from the very end of his life in 1791.
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While this last work has probably spawned
more theories and fantasies than any other classical work, the truth
is probably more prosaic; Mozart was commissioned by Count Walsegg
to write a requiem which the Count wished to pass off as his own,
hence the aura of secrecy.
Despite the work of conspiracy theorists,
he was not poisoned by a
rival composer and died of natural causes, probably the rheumatic
fever then rife in Vienna exacerbated by exhaustion as a result of
his astonishing output of works in his last 12 months of life.
The Requiem comes at the end of a list of works written in 1791 which
includes 2 major string quartets, his last piano concerto, the
clarinet concerto and the operas The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di
Tito as well as assorted masonic music. It is the culmination of a
unique outpouring of musical talent which retains its ability to
move an audience, and indeed performers, to this day.
Tricia Rees-Jones |
