Mozart: Requiem

»I never go to bed without pondering that, young as I am, I may not live to see the next day,« Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his mortally ill father. The omnipresence of death made life seem all the more fragile and precious to the composer. Perhaps it is this insight that shines through in Mozart's Requiem and gives the music its literally heavenly beauty.

The last work to come from Mozart's pen has held Manfred Honeck in thrall for many years now. In his project »A Requiem – Mozart and Death in Words and Music«, the award-winning conductor and longstanding friend of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducts the unfinished work up to the point where it comes to an abrupt end due to Mozart's death. Honeck omits the additional music that is usually played, supplementing Mozart's score instead with text fragments taken from vivid passages from the Bible, letters and poems by the composer – and with other pieces of music.

Internationally sought-after conductor Manfred Honeck regularly returns to his native Vorarlberg region of Austria to present the Mozart Requiem as a complex music project – always on Good Friday. These performances have long since achieved cult status. For the performance in Hamburg, the conductor was able to enlist a top-class set of soloists, the Latvian Radio Choir and the NDR Vokalensemble as well as the prominent actor Matthias Brandt as narrator. Honeck precedes the project »A Requiem« with two other works composed in 1791, the year of Mozart's death: Mozart's overture to his opera »La clemenza di Tito« and one of Joseph Haydn's so-called »London symphonies«, the Symphony No. 93 in D major.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester

NDR Vokalensemble

Chor des Lettischen Rundfunks

Schola Cantorum Ansgarii Chor

Leitung Norbert Hoppermann

Katharina Konradi Sopran

Catriona Morison Mezzosopran

Martin Mitterrutzner Tenor

Tareq Nazmi Bass

Matthias Brandt Sprecher

Dirigent Manfred Honeck

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ouvertüre zu »La clemenza di Tito« KV 621

Joseph Haydn
Sinfonie D-Dur Hob. I:93 »Glocken-Sinfonie«

– Pause –

»Ein Requiem – Mozart und der Tod in Wort und Musik«

Gregorianischer Choral
Requiem aeternam

Lesung: Matthias Brandt
Brief Mozarts an seinen Vater, 4. April 1787

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Maurerische Trauermusik c-Moll KV 479a

Gregorianischer Choral
Domine exaudi orationem meam

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Laudate dominum / aus: Vesperae solennes de confessore KV 339

Gregorianischer Choral
In quacumque die

Lesung: Matthias Brandt
Nelly Sachs: »Wer weiß, wo die Sterne stehen«
Nelly Sachs: »Wenn im Vorsommer«

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem d-Moll KV 626 Teil I & II

Lesung: Matthias Brandt
Offenbarung des Johannes 6,8–17

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem d-Moll KV 626 Teil III

Gregorianischer Choral
Christus factus est

Lesung: Matthias Brandt
Offenbarung des Johannes 21,1–7

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem d-Moll KV 626 Teil IV
Ave verum corpus / Motette KV 618