BRUNSWICK
The Oratorio Chorale and Bowdoin Chorus bring the drama and beauty of Mozart’s Requiem to Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College for three exciting performances, Saturday, November 22, at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Director Emily Isaacson will conduct a chorus of nearly 100 singers and 45 orchestra players who range in age and experience from high school and college students to longtime members of both choruses and professional musicians.
Soloists include soprano Estel? Gomez, alto Virginia Warnken, tenor Eric Dudley and bass Dashon Burton, all members of the GRAMMYwinning Roomful of Teeth. The ensemble will perform a concert on November 16 at 3:00, at Bowdoin’s Studzinski Recital Hall. (Their concert is open to the public free of charge.)
In 2012 the debut album by Roomful of Teeth was in the top 10 on Billboard charts, and eventually received a GRAMMY for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble.
Instrumentalists for the Requiem include players from the Bowdoin Orchestra, the Maine Chamber Ensemble, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, and the Mozart Mentors Orchestra.
Clorinda Noyes and Anthony Antolini originated the “Mozart Mentors” in 2010 during the New England Suzuki Institute (NESI). Formed in 2011, the group brings together dedicated students with their Suzuki teachers in an orchestra under professional direction. Five Mozart Mentors and sixteen of their students will take part in the Requiem rehearsals and performances.
Through the centuries the much beloved Requiem has been shrouded in mystery, with questions about the person who commissioned the work, and more importantly, who really composed the piece.
In her notes for the Oratorio Chorale’s Requiem program, Emily Isaacson points out that there really was an unknown man who commissioned Mozart to compose a Requiem mass – the mass for the dead. Despite what the 1979 stage play and 1984 film showed, it is more likely that Mozart knew the identity of his patron. Although the stranger did not reveal his identity, Mozart learned that it was a Viennese Count whose wife had recently died.
Nevertheless, letters show that Mozart (who was quite ill in the fall of 1791) believed the Requiem was destined to be his own funeral piece. As it turned out, he died in November of that year, leaving the Requiem unfinished.
Mozart’s wife Constanze eventually turned to his favorite pupil, Franz Xaver S?ssmayr, who completed the work for performance. Although speculation continues about how much Mozart wrote and what he might have done differently, and various editions may be chosen for performance, the uncertainties around this Requiem add to its mystery without diminishing its appeal.
All performances are full. To place your name on a waiting list, in case of cancellations, please contact 577-3931.
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