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Music for troubled timesMozart - Requiem |
The English Arts Chorale |
The English Arts Chorale |
Following last year's acclaimed performance of the Brahms and Fauré Requiems, The English Arts Chorale is delighted to return to The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d'Abernon, with a concert of two of the most popular choral masterpieces. Composed within a few years of each other, their style is similar and they are placed firmly in the Classical repertoire. Written in 1791, Requiem was Mozart's last and one of his most powerful works. Scholars have argued extensively over how much of the work we know today was actually written by Mozart. We do know that Mozart discussed his new work with Süssmayr, who completed the piece very shortly after Mozart's death. Though criticised by some as un-Mozartian, Süssmayr's version of the score is the most often heard, although several alternative versions have been written. The English Arts Chorale will be performing this well-loved version. Haydn's Mass in D minor, written in 1798 for the name-day of Princess Esterhazy, was entitled by the composer Missa in Angustiis (Mass for Times of Distress), which sounds as though it will be a dark and gloomy work. |
Parts of the work are indeed dramatic and fearful, but there are also passages of great jubilation and almost celebration. The title Nelson was not appended until much later, and was never used by Haydn himself. He met Nelson in 1800 at the court of Prince Esterhazy, and this work was almost certainly performed during that visit. It is thought that the work was renamed Nelson after that time. The English Arts Chorale will be conducted by Leslie Olive, its founder and musical director, and accompanied at the piano by Alan Brown, who has performed with many of the leading orchestras and has been accompanist at the Leith Hill Musical Festival since 1988. The four top-class soloists are Jay Britton (soprano), Emily Bauer-Jones (contralto), Ben Cooper (tenor) and Michael Burke (bass). Ticket information is here |