Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria in
1756 to Leopold, a musician and composer and Anna Maria Pertl. He demonstrated
musical abilities at an early age and by the time he was six his father had
taken him and his talented sister Nannerl to play in the courts of Bavaria and
Vienna. 1763 was a busy year for the young prodigy. His father took him on an
extended tour of Europe where he met several important musicians and composers
including Johann Christoph Bach (son of Johann Sebastian). It was also the year
that Mozart’s first compositions were published. In 1769 Mozart embarked on the
first of three tours of Italy to learn to compose Italian opera, something
which at the time was an essential skill for a composer. The final tour ended
in 1773 at which point Mozart was truly beginning to flourish as a composer. He
returned to Salzburg and took a position as court composer. In 1777 he decided
to leave Salzburg but ultimately returned to a better post than the one he had
left. In 1781 after the very successful premier of Idomeneo in Munich, Mozart was summoned to Vienna. It was here that
Mozart met his wife, Constanze, a soprano and the daughter of old family
friends. Though Mozart continued to compose, his concert appearances grew less
frequent and despite artistic success the young family was very poor. Mozart
was forced to borrow money from family and friends and began to make journeys
to Dresden and Berlin in search of opportunities. 1791 brought with it the
successful performance of The Magic Flute
which the composer conducted just after returning from Prague. This premier
was somewhat overshadowed by Mozart’s illness. The sickness progressed and
Mozart died in his home on December 5, 1791 leaving the Requiem unfinished.
The Requiem K626
has long been shrouded in mystery. It was commissioned by Count Franz von
Walsegg, a rather unscrupulous musician and nobleman who had a habit of
anonymously commissioning works and passing them off as his own. Mozart never
knew who had commissioned the work; he was approached by a stranger and in such
dire financial straits that he didn’t question it. Stories that Mozart believed
he was “writing his own Requiem” are just that, stories. He was very busy
during his final year with two operas and his clarinet concerto and only after
conducting the premier of The Magic Flute
was he able to again focus on his commission. Unfortunately, Mozart died before
the work was finished. He wrote the Introit
and Kyrie but only the vocal parts,
figured bass and sketches of the orchestration for the Sequence and Offertory.
It was not, as Amadeus would suggest,
completed by Salieri. Mozart’s friend Franz Xaver Sussmayr who had studied with
the composer was contacted by Constanze to complete the work from Mozart’s
sketches so that she could receive the money from the commission. Sussmayr
completed the Lacrymosa, Sanctus and
Benedictus as well as an unknown amount of the Agnus Dei. The final Communion
portion is entirely by Sussmayr but is just a reworking of the opening
music. The piece has gone on to occupy a very important place in the canon of
choral literature and is frequently performed. Efforts have been made in recent
years to find a more authentic reading of the piece, restoring a large fugal
“Amen” to the Lacrymosa and completing
it with bits of other works. The version presented today is the traditional
version with Sussmayr’s work completing the piece.
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