Our best wishes to everyone for a very happy New Year, may it be the year where the trials and tribulations of the past two years are finally put behind us; the year where we can embrace each other (literally and figuratively) and make wonderful musical memories together.
After two years of not being able to have rehearsals or concerts we’re thrilled to be starting up again in earnest. We did have two Christmas concerts in December – 21 which we enjoyed presenting, but they coincided with the discovery of the Omicron strain of Covid and unfortunately that affected the ticket bookings – however those who attended enjoyed them very much; as one person put it: an uplifting experience, much needed in these trying times. We have missed the joy of making music together and of sharing it with our wonderful audiences so we’re really looking forward to presenting our first concert of 2022.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART’S REQUIEM 30TH JANUARY @ 15:00 – 16:00
LINDER AUDITORIUM, PARKTOWN, JOHANNESBURG CONDUCTED BY RICHARD COCK
This is going to be a very special concert dedicated to loved ones who died during the past two years – not just of Covid but for other reasons too. The choir lost a number of dear members due to a number of different causes, and they will all be remembered fondly. This is a wonderful opportunity for anyone to pay respects to and remember a dearly loved family member, friend, colleague or whatever the case may be. Mozart’s magnificent music will bring solace and peace to all who grieve – and it will also bring a sense of ‘a new beginning’ – of hope and lighter days ahead. We can never forget our loved ones, but we can learn to live cherishing our happy memories of them.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but he grew restless and searched for a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. He composed more than 600 works and is among the most enduringly popular classical composers; his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Joseph Haydn wrote: “posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years”.
The Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg who commissioned the piece.
The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated Introit in Mozart’s hand, and detailed drafts of
the Kyrie and the sequence Dies irae as far as the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa movement, and the Offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost “scraps of paper” for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as his own. Mozart’s widow Constanze was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner’s identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral.
Our soloists are as always top class: Magdalene Minnaar – soprano, Monica Mhangwana – alto, Siyabonga Maqungo – tenor, William Berger – bass. The orchestra will be the wonderful Phoenix Orchestra and the whole ensemble will be
CONDUCTED BY RICHARD COCK BOOKING AT COMPUTICKET – SEE BOOKING PAGE