Related performance
- Artist: Sean Fleming
- Date: 08/11/19
- Time: 7:30pm
- Venue: Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor
- City: Boothbay Harbor
- Address: 125 Townsend Ave Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538-1844
- Venue phone: 207-633-4757
- Country: United States
- Age restrictions: All Ages
- Box office: (207) 633-3913
- More information
- Notes: The Lincoln Festival Chorus, under the direction of Linda Blanchard, and accompanied by organist Sean Fleming and a professional orchestra, will present the Mozart Requiem, at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor on Friday, August 9 and Sunday, August 11. Both concerts will be at 7:30 PM. In July 1791 a mysterious tall stranger in a three-cornered hat and gray cloak arrived at Mozart’s apartment in Vienna. The stranger handed Mozart a letter asking if he would be interested in writing a requiem mass. Would Mozart be kind enough send his reply to a certain address? After consulting with his wife, Constanze, Mozart accepted the commission, quoted a price, but said that he could not promise a date for delivery because Mozart had been in poor health and not able to work a great deal. Some days later, the stranger reappeared bearing a bag of money for the composer. He said that Mozart’s price had been so reasonable that his employer had promised a hefty bonus, and that he should complete the work as quickly as possible. Mozart had several other commissioned compositions to complete before he began full-time work on the Requiem. After Mozart completed his final opera, The Magic Flute, he was free to work on the Requiem in ernest. As he worked more and more on it, he became very attached to the piece, and he worked feverishly on it, several times fainting over his work. Mozart was able to complete the Requiem and Kyrie movements, and managed to sketch the voice parts and bass lines for the Dies irae through to the Hostias. After gathering a choir of his closest friends to sing what was completed of the piece on 4 December 1791, he died the next day. Fearing the loss of the commission if the Requiem was not completed, Constanze hired Franz Süssmayr to complete the work. Süssmayr finished the work based on sketches left behind. The Mozart Requiem has been performed many times over the centuries, but it still has the power to move the hearer. Of Mozart, Joseph Haydn wrote to Mozart’s father, “Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name; he has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition.” Richard Wagner said, “The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts.” Tchaikovsky wrote, “Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music.”