Mozart: Requiem community concert

Lauren Russell, soprano

Jennifer Wiggins, mezzo-soprano

Elliott Brown, tenor

Kendrick Williams, bass

Kenney Potter, conductor

The Charlotte Master Chorale and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra are collaborating to bring great music to our community. Mozart‘s epic final work, his Requiem in D minor, K. 626, will be performed at East Mecklenburg High School on Sunday, May 7th, at 3:00 pm. 

And thanks to the generous support of the Sally Ann and Joe Hall Fund of the CSO Endowment—and inspired by their efforts to broaden access to classical music—all audience members are being offered “pay what you want” tickets.

 

“Mozart’s Requiem was created in a shroud of mystery. His health was deteriorating in early July of 1791 when a stranger showed up at the composer’s door on behalf of an individual who wanted a Requiem Mass from Mozart—but only if Mozart didn’t seek to learn the identity of his patron.

“At the time, Mozart was battling debilitating fevers, while deeply engaged with the writing of The Magic Flute and another opera. On December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, he died without having completed the Requiem. Mozart had already been paid, and his widow Constanze was worried about having to return the payment if she submitted an incomplete score. In the end, Mozart’s pupil Süssmayer completed the work and copied the entire score in his own hand—making it virtually impossible to discern who wrote what—and gave it to the stranger.

“Mozart’s patron turned out to be Anton Leitgeb, son of the mayor of Vienna and the valet of Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach. Leitgeb had a reputation of representing other people’s music as his own, and it was a full decade before Constanze was able to persuade the Count to acknowledge Mozart as the Requiem’s composer.”