REQUIEM / WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

2 November 2024, Saturday
Time 19:00
Archcathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Świętojańska 8, Warsaw



FREE ADMISSION.

Requiem will be performed during the Holy Mass.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem is undoubtedly one of the most famous pieces in the funeral mass genre. It is the last, unfinished work of the Viennese master. His student Franz Xaver Süssmayr undertook the task of writing the last movements and completing the drafts. The music delights with its maturity and dramatic sound.

Missa pro defunctis is intended to be performed during funeral ceremonies and on All Souls’ Day. Today, it is difficult to precisely define how much of the composition was written by Mozart himself. It is certain, however, that the introductory fragment of the mass – Introitus – was completed and orchestrated entirely by him. The choral call that opens the Mass, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,” announces the main theme of the entire prayer. In addition to the opening fragment, Mozart also managed to write Kyrie with a double fugue, the sequence Dies irae (with the crowning movement Lacrimosa preserved only in sketches), Domine Jesu and Hostias, and arranged them for soloists, a choir and continuo. He also made some instrumentation notes for these fragments. The rest of the work was completed by the aforementioned Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who finished Lacrimosa and composed the remaining parts of the funeral mass: Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. In order to maintain the homogeneity of the piece, he repeated the musical content from Introitus and Kyrie (with changed lyrics) in the Lux aeterna movement that closes the cycle.

PERFORMERS

MARTA BOBERSKA SOPRANO
ANNA RADZIEJEWSKA ALTO
SYLWESTER SMULCZYŃSKI TENOR
WOJTEK GIERLACH BASS

THE CHORUS OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

THE ORCHESTRA OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

JAKUB SZAFRAŃSKI CHORUS MASTER

DAWID RUNTZ CONDUCTOR


The seats in the auditorium are not numbered.