Anna Leese, Rhonda Browne, Amitai Pati, Robert Tucker, Voices New Zealand, NZSO conducted by Gemma New after performing Mozart's Requiem Photo: Latitude Creative/NZSO
Performed by Anna Leese (soprano), Rhonda Browne (alto), Amitai Pati (tenor), Robert Tucker (bass) with Voices NZ Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gemma New.
Death wasn’t an abstract idea for Mozart. It pursued him from birth until his death in 1791, the most productive and successful year of his life. He was the youngest of 7 children, five of whom died in infancy. Of his own six children, only two survived and he also felt keenly the loss of both his parents, particularly his mother who died quite suddenly. He developed such a knowing relationship with death that it no longer terrified him. In fact, he came to consider death as humanity’s best and truest friend.
In 1791, a stranger visited Mozart and offered him a secret commission – a Requiem. Needing the money, Mozart accepted but died before he could complete it - the score breaks off in the eighth bar of the Lacrymosa, perhaps the saddest and most beautiful part of the Requiem.
His sister-in-law, Sophie documented Mozart’s final hours in a letter. Knowing he’d been unwell and beset by an ominous feeling, she rushed to his house and found him in bed. Glad to see her, Mozart asked her to stay with him and watch him die. Sophie tried to be brave and persuade him to the contrary, but he only replied: “Why I already have the taste of death on my tongue…”
Mozart’s friend Suessmayr was at his bedside and the Requiem lay on the quilt. Mozart was instructing him how to he ought to finish it, when he was gone. Mozart’s last movement was an attempt to mouth the drum passage in the Requiem, which haunted Sophie who continued to hear it well after his death.
Mozart’s 25-year-old student and assistant Franz Suessmayr had the difficult job of completing the work and his version has stood the test of time.
Period Instruments
The NZSO's two new basset horns feature in this performance, together with alto trombone and baroque timpani.
Rachel Vernon and John Robinson with NZSO’s new basset horns, David Bremner with alto trombone, and Larry Reese with baroque timpani. Photo: David McCaw
Recorded 18 November 2022, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Darryl Stack
