NOSPR/Prague Philharmonic Choir/ Arming/ Mozart's Requiem/ Music in the Time of Tales

Before the concert, at 6.30 p.m., we invite you to the chamber hall for a meeting with the editor Piotr Matwieczuk (Program 2 of the Polish Radio), who will discuss the works performed that evening. Entrance to the lecture is free, to participate in the lecture is entitled to show a subscription card or a ticket to the concert. The lecture will also be broadcast live on YouTube.

A well-told story is more interesting than the truth. We are more inclined to believe it, dismissing the truth as too complex or uninteresting. We often understand little from the general context of musical works, but they themselves overgrow in stories and references. Mozart's Mourning Mass is the best example: for many, it is the only Requiem they know. The history of this musical form pales in the face of the later stories about a mysterious stranger who ordered the work, about Mozart, from whose creative work sucked all his strength, and about the Italian composer Salierim, who allegedly wanted to kill Wolfgang and claim the authorship of the work to himself.

Whoever wants to, he will separate the half-truths from the fantasy and get to the story of the Requiem, completed after the death of Mozart by familiar composers. He may find out that the order came from Count Franz von Walsegg, who notoriously credited himself with authorship of the works he paid for. He can also check which fragments came out from under the hand of Mozart himself. But will this knowledge enrich the reception of the work? Won't he take away his magic? Please decide for yourself.

A treatise on “music in music” and on the layering of the story that resonates in the context of this concert is the Sinfonia Luciana Beria. Listening to this masterpiece of the 20th century, the American composer Jacob Druckman decided to use the Beria method, overwriting his own music on fragments of operas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Francesco Cavalle and Luigi Cherubini. Druckman reflects on the storytelling of stories, the incessant return and immortality of myth. It can be done in sounds.

Adam Suprynowicz (Polish Radio)

Duration of the concert (including the break): approx. 100 minutes

More concerts as part of the S1 symphonic concert series.

Performers: NOSPR; Prague Philharmonic Choir; Lukáš Vasilek — choir preparation; Magdalena Lucjan — soprano; Justyna Rapacz — alto; Tadeusz Szlenkier — tenor; Łukasz Konieczny — bass

Program: Jacob Druckman — Prism; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Requiem in D minor KV 626