Season 20102010----20112011

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Thursday, January 6, at 8:00 Friday, January 77,, at 2:00 Saturday, January 88,, at 8:00 Sunday, January 99,, at 2:00

Yannick NézetNézet----SéguinSéguin Conductor Lucy Crowe Soprano Birgit Remmert Mezzo-soprano James Taylor Tenor Andrew FosterFoster----WilliamsWilliams Bass-baritone The Philadelphia Singers Chorale David Hayes Music Director

Debussy Nocturnes I. Clouds II. Festivals III. Sirens

Intermission

Mozart/completed Süssmayr Requiem, K. 626 I. Introitus: Requiem II. Kyrie III. Sequentia 1. Dies irae 2. Tuba mirum 3. Rex tremendae 4. Recordare 5. Confutatis 6. Lacrimosa IV. Offertorium 1. Domine Jesu 2. Hostias V. Sanctus VI. Benedictus VII. Agnus Dei VIII. Communio: Lux aeterna

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes.

The January 6 concert is sponsored by Medcomp.

The January 8 concert is sponsored by Ballard Spahr LLP. Since his European conducting debut in 2004, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has become one of the most sought-after conductors on today’s international classical music scene, widely praised by audiences, critics, and artists alike for his musicianship, dedication, and charisma. A native of Montreal, he made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2008 and last June was named the Orchestra’s next music director, a post he takes up with the 2012-13 season. Artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, he became music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic in 2008.

Recent engagements have included concerts with the Vienna and Los Angeles philharmonics, the Boston Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Orchestre National de France and, earlier this month, a tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and his Berlin Philharmonic debut. This season also includes debuts with the Chicago Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, and La Scala; Strauss’s Salome for Montreal Opera; Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Baden-Baden; and Vienna Philharmonic projects at the 2011 Salzburg, Montreux, and Lucerne festivals. Following his Metropolitan Opera debut last season with Bizet’s Carmen, he returned this past November/December for Verdi’s Don Carlo. Highlights in 2011-12 include his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, debut; a third production for Netherlands Opera; appearances in Vienna with both the Rotterdam and Vienna philharmonics; concerts with the Dresden Staatskapelle; and further recordings.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s Rotterdam Philharmonic recordings for EMI/Virgin comprise an Edison Award-winning disc of works by Ravel , the Beethoven and Korngold violin concertos with Renaud Capuçon, and Fantasy: A Night at the Opera with flutist Emmanuel Pahud. Future releases include Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Death of Cleopatra for BIS Records. He has also recorded several award-winning albums with the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s honors include a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, an Echo Award, the Virginia-Parker Award from the Canada Council, and the National Arts Centre Award.

Born in Staffordshire, England, soprano Lucy Crowe studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2002 she received the Royal Overseas Gold Medal and in 2005 won second prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Ms. Crowe’s concert engagements include Handel arias with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Harry Bicket; Haydn’s The Creation and The Season s with John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra in Paris and at Carnegie Hall; Mendelssohn’s Elijah under Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and also with the King’s Consort; Handel’s Messiah with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert; Haydn’s Il ritorno di Tobia with Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and Handel’s Alexander’s Feast under Richard Egarr with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Other engagements include performances with the Sixteen under Harry Christophers, the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox and Mr. Pinnock, and the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh. Ms. Crowe has also appeared at the Barbican’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, and Salzburg festivals. She has given recitals throughout the U.K. and will make her Carnegie Hall recital debut next season.

Ms. Crowe made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Other operatic engagements include Sophie in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for the Royal Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Scottish Opera; Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando in Lille and for Dijon Opera; Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina and Drusilla in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea for English National Opera; Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff for Scottish Opera; Susanna and Michal in Handel’s Saul for Opera North; and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with William Christie for the Glyndebourne Festival and in Paris and New York.

Ms. Crowe’s future engagements include Iole in Handel’s Hercules for Chicago Lyric Opera, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for the Bavarian State Opera, and a Lully/Purcell/Rameau program with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Emannuelle Haïm. These current performances mark her Philadelphia Orchestra debut. Mezzo-soprano Birgit Remmert was born in Braunschweig, Germany, where she began her music studies; she later continued her studies in Detmold. During and shortly after finishing her musical education she was awarded prizes in several renowned international music competitions.

Recent and future plans include concerts in Zurich, Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Paris, Budapest, Salzburg, Florence, Manchester, Sheffield, and Washington. In 2010 Ms. Remmert appeared in Handel’s Semele at the Theater an der Wien, in the role of the Nurse in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Vienna State Opera, in Dvořák’s Rusalka in Tokyo and Geneva, and in concerts with the Munich Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann.

Ms. Remmert has given numerous recitals in Europe and appears regularly with many renowned orchestras; her Philadelphia Orchestra debut was in 2000. She has also given concerts in Vienna, Berlin, New York, Sapporo, Tokyo, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Milan, Lisbon, Madrid, Monte Carlo, Brussels, Pittsburgh, Rome, and Cardiff.

Ms. Remmert’s opera engagements have included appearances at the Montpellier Festival, in the title role of Othmar Schoeck's Penthesilea, and at the Bayreuth Festival, where she has appeared as Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. Her other appearances include the roles of Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Teatro Real Madrid, Gaea in Strauss’s Daphne at the Teatro la Fenice and Netherlands Opera, Juno in Semele and the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten in Zurich, Neris in Cherubini’s Médée at the Theater an der Wien, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff in Hamburg, and Jezibaba in Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival.

Ms. Remmert’s more than 30 recordings include Mahler’s Second, Third, and Eighth symphonies; Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Symphony No. 9; Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle; Liszt’s Christus, which received the Echo Award in 2007; and three solo CDs. She can also be seen on several DVDs, including Purcell’s King Arthur from the 2004 Salzburg Festival, Daphne from the Teatro la Fenice, and Semele from the Zurich Opera House. Tenor James Taylor’s 2010-11 season includes Haydn’s “Paukenmesse” and Purcell’s Behold I Bring You Glad Tidings with Les Violons du Roy, Handel’s Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and with the Bach Collegium Japan, Mozart’s Requiem with Bernard Labadie and the Colorado Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Helmuth Rilling and the Chicago Symphony.

Highlights of 2009-10 included Berlioz’s Requiem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, and Mozart’s Requiem with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony. In Europe Mr. Taylor sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Leipzig, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Essen with Mr. Rilling; Mendelssohn’s Paulus with Masaaki Suzuki in Utrecht and with Mr. Rilling and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi; and Emilio in Mozart’s Il sogno di Scipione with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus in Vienna. In the summer of 2010, Mr. Taylor returned to the Oregon Bach Festival and also appeared at the Bard Music Festival.

Mr. Taylor can be heard on over 30 recordings, including Messiah, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, and St. John Passion for Hänssler; and Bach’s Easter Oratorio, Beethoven's Missa solemnis, and Paulus under Philippe Herreweghe on the Harmonia Mundi label. Mr. Taylor’s most recent releases include Britten’s War Requiem with Mr. Rilling for Hänssler, Mozart’s Requiem with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Andreas Delfs on Limestone Records, Missa solemnis with the Nashville Symphony on the Naxos label, and Johan Georg Conradi’s opera Ariadne with the Boston Early Music Festival led by Paul O’Dette on ArkivMusik.

A native of Houston, Mr. Taylor attended Texas Christian University as a student of Arden Hopkin. A Fulbright Scholar, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich where he graduated in 1993. He has served as associate professor of voice at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music since 2005. These current performances mark his Philadelphia Orchestra debut. Bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams studied at, and is now an associate of, the Royal Academy of Music. Current and future concert plans include Bach’s Lutheran Mass No. 2 with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Robin Ticciati, a Levite in Handel’s Solomon with the Orchestra Nationale della RAI and Ivor Bolton, Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic and Bernard Labadie, Bach’s St. John Passion in Leipzig with Al Ayre Espanõl, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the BBC Scottish Symphony, and Haydn’s The Creation with Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet.

Mr. Foster-Williams’s opera engagements include Fenice in Handel’s Deidamia for Netherlands Opera, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Washington National Opera, a European tour of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera with the Academy of Ancient Music, the four villains in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann in Moscow, and Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio for Opera North. He recently made his U.S. opera debut as Leone in Handel’s Tamerlano with Washington National Opera.

Mr. Foster-Williams’s concert performances have included Haydn’s The Seasons with the London Symphony and Colin Davis (also recorded for LSO Live) and with the Netherlands Philharmonic and Paul McCreesh; Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Phillipe Herreweghe; Messiah with the Strasbourg Philharmonic and John Nelson; Pulcinella with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and Yakov Kreizberg; Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Deutsches Sinfonie-orchester Berlin under Andrew Manze; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Roger Norrington; and The Creation with the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder, and also with the Gabrieli Consort. Mr. Foster-Williams’s recent U.S. concert appearances have included Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” with the Cleveland Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Milwaukee Symphony and Andreas Delfs and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2009. Founded in 1972 and now under the leadership of music director David Hayes, the Philadelphia Singers is a professional chorus that engages and inspires a broad range of audiences in the Philadelphia region with compelling concert experiences featuring performances of choral masterpieces and contemporary works. The Singers has a special commitment to preserve and strengthen America’s rich choral heritage through performances, commissions, and music education.

For 37 years, the Philadelphia Singers has upheld its mission to enrich the broader community through embodying the highest standards of classical musicianship and providing a platform for its musicians to serve the community in a variety of formats. The Philadelphia Singers performs regularly with leading national and local performing arts organizations, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Kimmel Center Presents, and the Mannes Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Singers’s 2010-11 subscription season concludes in April with Seven Last Words, featuring Bach’s Cantata No. 182 and James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.

In 1991 the Philadelphia Singers founded the Philadelphia Singers Chorale, a symphonic chorus composed of professional singers and talented volunteers. In its role as resident chorus of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chorale appears with the Orchestra in all its choral subscription concerts, as well as annual performances of Handel's Messiah.

David Hayes was appointed music director of the Philadelphia Singers in 1992. Director of orchestral and conducting studies for the Mannes College of Music in New York, he is also staff conductor of the Curtis Symphony and a cover conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra.

FRAMING THE PROGRAM

Debussy is justly renowned for his imaginative ability to evoke moods connected with diverse times, places, and situations. Although he objected to the term “Impressionism,” which was first applied to contemporaneous French paintings, it is understandable why the word was used to characterize his music as well. He began writing the Nocturnes relatively early in his career, during years living in Rome. The piece has three movements—the mysterious Clouds, the brilliant Festivals, and the atmospheric Sirens, which employs a wordless women’s chorus.

It is hardly surprising that many legends surround Mozart’s final and ultimately unfinished composition—his great Requiem. The idea of a dying 35-year-old genius composing what in the end turned out to be his own musical memorial immediately appealed to listeners, who sensed the unusually personal nature of the music.

Parallel Events 1791 Mozart Requiem Music Haydn Symphony No. 96 Literature Paine The Rights of Man, Part I Art Morland The Stable History Vermont becomes a state

1899 Debussy Nocturnes Music Sibelius Finlandia Literature Tolstoy Resurrection Art Toulouse-Lautrec Jane Avril History First magnetic recording of sound Nocturnes

Claude Debussy Born iiinin SaintSaint----GermainGermainGermain----eeeennnn----Laye,Laye, France, August 22, 1862 Died in Paris, March 25, 1918

By 1880 Debussy, then in his late teens, abandoned his ambition to become a concert pianist. He was fired with a new interest—composition. Early studies with Ernest Guiraud and César Franck soon paid off: In 1884 he won the prestigious Prix de Rome in composition. But the stipulations of the prize—that the grantee reside for a year in Rome’s Villa Medici and submit four compositions as evidence of artistic progress—made this a less than celebratory occasion for Debussy. He loved Paris, it had always been his source of inspiration. The Eternal City’s burden of history weighed heavily on him. He called the aging villa “a prison.”

Evolution ooofof aaa Masterpiece Nevertheless Debussy managed to write important works during his Italian period and also furthered his exposure to a broad range of music through travel in Germany, Russia, and France. By the 1890s he was writing such masterpieces as the String Quartet and the revolutionary orchestral Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, works that announced a major new force in music.

Shortly after completing Faun in 1894, Debussy embarked on the first version of his equally potent Nocturnes, a work he originally conceived for solo violin and orchestra. The composer described the piece to the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (for whom it was intended) as “an experiment in the various textures that can be made with a single color,” comparing it to the equivalent of a painter’s study in grays.

Having apparently completed the Nocturnes in 1894, Debussy was dissatisfied with the result, and he set about to revise it. From 1897 to 1899 he reworked the piece entirely, omitting the violin solo and employing, in the last movement, a textless chorus of 16 women to represent the sirens, the sinister mythological bird-women who enchanted sailors with eerie song. The first two movements of the new version were first heard in December 1900 at the Concerts Lamoureux of Paris’ Société Nationale; the whole piece was not performed until October of the following year.

A Closer Look “The title Nocturnes is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense,” Debussy wrote in a preface to the score of the work. “Therefore, it is not meant to designate the usual form of the nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests.”

The three movements offer contrasting tempos and moods, although all end quietly. The opening Clouds is the most characteristically “impressionistic” with its statically shifting chords. The lively Festivals follows. The strings that had dominated the first movement yield to the brass instruments, notably trumpet fanfares that recall Tchaikovsky. (The two composers shared the same patron, the elusive Madame von Meck.) The concluding Sirens, with its evocative use of women’s wordless voices, is alluringly seductive and invokes the sea, a topic of another great work the composer would write a few years later.

Debussy’s note on the piece continues thus:

Nuages [Clouds] renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones tinged with white. Fêtes [Festivals] portrays the restless dancing rhythms of the atmosphere, interspersed with sudden flashes of light; the episode of the procession (a dazzling, fantastic vision) passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains persistently the same: the festival, its blending of music and luminous dust participating in cosmic rhythms. Sirènes [Sirens] depicts the sea and its innumerable rhythms: Presently, amid the waves silvered by the moon, the mysterious song of the Sirens is heard; it laughs and passes on.

—Paul J. Horsley/Christopher H. Gibbs

Debussy composed Nocturnes from 1897 to 1899.

Leopold Stokowski led the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the complete Nocturnes in January 1919, with women from the Mendelssohn Choir. Most recently on subscription, Charles Dutoit led the Orchestra and women of the Philadelphia Singers Chorale in March 2008.

The Orchestra recorded the complete Nocturnes twice: in 1939 with Stokowski for RCA, with an unnamed women’s chorus, and in 1964 with Eugene Ormandy for CBS, with women of the Temple University Choir. “Festivals” and “Clouds” were each recorded separately by Stokowski, in 1927 and 1929 respectively, both for RCA, and the two movements were recorded together by Ormandy with women of the Philadelphia Orchestra Chorus in 1944 for CBS.

Debussy scored the work for three flutes (III doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (cymbals, military drum), two harps, strings, and women’s chorus.

Performance time is approximately 25 minutes.

Requiem

Wolfgang Amadè Mozart Born in Salzburg, January 27, 1756 Died in Vienna, December 5, 17179191

“Grant Them Eternal Rest.” The solemn words that open the Mass for the Dead plead for enduring peace, but as the 35-year-old Mozart composed his miraculous Requiem in the fall of 1791 he experienced no such comfort. A relentless work schedule, declining health, and dark moods clouded much of the last months of his life.

When Mozart received a mysterious request to compose a Requiem during the summer, two ambitious operas were in the offing. He was already composing The Magic Flute, which he had to interrupt when he got a prestigious commission to write a serious opera, La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Mozart composed that work feverishly in August, travelling to Prague at the end of the month to conduct its premiere on September 6. He then returned to Vienna to finish The Magic Flute, writing two additional numbers just before conducting its triumphant premiere on September 30. Within weeks he composed his great Clarinet Concerto and a small cantata to celebrate the opening of a new temple of his Masonic lodge, New Crown Hope, in Vienna.

Mozart’s Final Project At some point in September Mozart began serious work on the Requiem, but legend has it (and more about other legends later) that when his wife, Constanze, returned from a rest cure at a spa in Baden she was distressed to see how exhausted he was and how obsessed he had become in particular with the Requiem, which she allegedly took away from him. Mozart nonetheless returned to its composition somewhat later and worked on the piece until his death early in the morning of December 5.

The well-known movie Amadeus fictitiously has Mozart on his deathbed dictating the Requiem to his rival Antonio Salieri, who was long rumored to have poisoned him. Although there was no such final meeting between the two composers (or any murder), Mozart did reportedly gather Constanze and various colleagues around him to sing through parts of the Requiem and instructed his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr on how to finish the piece. The haunting opening of the Requiem, the only part completed entirely by Mozart, may have been performed at his funeral a week later.

Constanze enlisted a series of Mozart’s students to finish the Requiem; she asked Joseph Eybler, who did only minimal work, as did two others who orchestrated some incomplete sections. Most of the task of completion fell to the 25-year-old Süssmayr, thus earning him some limited fame as well as some infamy. Over the course of the 19th century Mozart’s Requiem became the most famous musical setting of the Mass for the Dead, and was sung at memorial services for Haydn, Beethoven, Weber, Chopin, and other celebrated musicians, as well as at funerals of public figures such as Napoleon.

A Legendary Work It is hardly surprising that so many legends surround the work. The idea of someone of Mozart’s gifts, just age 35, writing what he apparently came to believe was his own musical memorial was immediately appealing to contemporaries and even more so to later Romantics. Very soon after Mozart’s death a newspaper in his hometown of Salzburg reported that he composed the piece “often with tears in his eyes, constantly saying: I fear that I am writing a Requiem for myself.”

There are numerous uncertainties about the Requiem, most importantly about who actually composed much of the music. The manuscript shows that Mozart completed only the opening Introit, as well as most of the following Kyrie. The next sections were extensively drafted by Mozart, but not finished. For the final sections no authentic materials survive.

The mysteries about the piece begin with the circumstances of its genesis. A legend emerged that a “grey messenger” appeared to Mozart with the anonymous request for him to write a Requiem but that he should not ask who was initiating the commission. In fact it came from one Count Franz von Walsegg, who hired noted composers to write pieces that he would then pass off as his own. (It is not entirely clear that his intent was fraudulent—he seems to have enjoyed having invited audiences guess who the composer actually was.) In any case, Mozart was given half the handsome fee in advance and although pressed with his opera projects he was hardly in a financial position to refuse the lucrative offer.

Mozart had recently received an unpaid appointment as assistant music director of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Vienna’s most prominent), which meant that composing sacred music would henceforth play a larger role in his career. Although he had written a large amount of religious music during his early years in Salzburg, this activity dropped off after moving to Vienna in 1781. His greatest sacred work, the Mass in C minor, K. 427, had remained unfinished, and such, of course, would be the fate of the Requiem as well. The masterly late music for the Requiem encompasses Mozart’s astounding range of styles, beginning with the pleading expressiveness of the Introit even before the first words are sung. The contrapuntal virtuosity of the double fugue in the Kyrie gives evidence of his increasing interest in the music of Bach and Handel. Mozart the keen dramatist is also present in this sacred score—the Magic Flute character of Sarastro may come to mind with the bass solo of the Tuba mirum.

After Süssmayr finished the piece, he wrote out a new score so as to avoid suspicion of its multiple composers; he forged Mozart’s signature and dated the manuscript 1792. The Requiem was then dispatched to Count Walsegg who in turn copied it all out again in his own hand and wrote “Requiem composta del Conte Walsegg” at the top. He conducted the work on December 14, 1793, at a Mass in memory of his wife, who had died two years earlier at age 20.

A Closer Look The performance heard in today’s concert uses the edition prepared by Franz Beyer in the early 1970s that is based on Süssmayr’s completion but that scales back some of the orchestration and adjusts some of the part-writing. Beyer’s introduction clearly indicates the state of Mozart’s manuscript: “The only totally completed part is the Introitus , the vocal parts from the Kyrie through the Hostias are present, including some of the figured bass, but the Lacrimosa breaks off after only the first eight measures. As for the instrumentation, beginning with the Dies Irae there are only a few sketches by Mozart indicating his intensions for filling them out later.”

Thus after the opening entirely by Mozart, there follow parts for which he provided most of the music but that required fleshing out of the orchestration. For the last movements—the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, and concluding communion—there is nothing in Mozart’s autograph manuscript. Süssmayr asserted in a letter written in 1800 that he wrote this music himself (“ganz neu von mir verfertigt”—wholly composed by me). The claim has aroused considerable debate. In the early 1960s a sheet of Mozart’s sketches for a projected fugal end to the Lacrymosa was found and there has long been speculation that other such sketches were available to Süssmayr, as well as whatever Mozart may have told him while writing the piece. The general consensus is that the music for the missing parts of the Requiem is at a much higher level than Süssmayr’s other sacred music and therefore must have been based on authentic Mozart materials. Thus when something awkward or less satisfactory appears in the score poor Süssmayr is blamed, putting him in the unenviable situation of getting little credit and a good deal of blame. In any case, the music that opens the Requiem returns for the final communion, thus ensuring a genuine Mozartean frame to the work.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Mozart composed the Requiem in 1791.

Harl McDonald led the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Mozart’s Requiem on March 12, 1938, with soprano Lys Bert, mezzo-soprano Elsie MacFarlane, tenor Fritz Krueger, bass Lester Englander, and Mendelssohn Club. The work has only been performed by the Orchestra twice since then: in 1946 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, led by Hardin van Deursen, with soprano Ruth Diehl, contralto Jean Watson, tenor William Hain, bass Nicola Moscona, and the University Choral Union, and in 1991 with Riccardo Muti and soprano Arleen Auger, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, tenor Jozef Kundlak, bass- baritone Simon Estes, and the Westminster Symphonic Choir.

The Philadelphians have recorded the Requiem once, in 1938 for RCA with soprano Barbara Thorne, mezzo-soprano Elsie MacFarlane, tenor Donald Coker, bass Lester Englander, and the University of Pennsylvania Choral Society. The Introitus and Kyrie alone were recorded by Eugene Ormandy and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 1962 for CBS.

The score calls for two clarinets, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, organ, strings, mixed chorus, and four vocal soloists.

The Requiem runs approximately 60 minutes in performance.

I. INTROITUS

Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn is due to Thee, God in Zion, and to Thee a vow shall be paid in Jerusalem: Hear my prayer, to Thee all flesh shall come. Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

II. KYRIE

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.

III. SEQUENTIA

1. Dies irae The day of wrath, that day, will dissolve the world in ashes, as David prophesied with the Sibyl.

How great a terror there will be when the Judge comes to examine all things with rigor!

2. Tuba mirum The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the tombs of every land, will gather all before the throne.

Death and nature will stand amazed when creation rises again to answer to the Judge.

A written book will be brought forth in which all will be contained, from which the world will be judged.

Thus when the Judge takes His seat whatever is hidden will be revealed; Nothing will remain unavenged.

What shall I say then in my misery? Whom shall I seek as protector, when a righteous man would scarcely be safe?

3. Rex tremendae King of dreadful majesty, who freely saves the redeemed, grant me pardon, thou fount of goodness.

444.4. Recordare Remember, good Jesus, that I am the cause of Thy journey: do not abandon me on that day.

Seeking me, Thou didst sit down weary: Thou didst redeem me by enduring the cross: Let not such great pains be in vain.

Righteous Judge of vengeance, grant me the gift of redemption before the day of reckoning.

I groan, like one condemned: My face blushes with guilt: Spare a suppliant, O God.

Thou who didst absolve Mary and hear the prayer of the thief, to me also Thou hast given hope.

My prayers are not worthy: But Thou, O good one, show mercy, lest I burn in the everlasting fire.

Grant me a place among the sheep, and separate me from the goats, placing me on Thy right hand.

5. Confutatis When the damned are confounded and consigned to the acrid flames, summon me among the blessed.

I pray, suppliant and kneeling, my heart contrite as if in ashes: Take care of my ending.

6. Lacrimosa That day is one of weeping, on which will rise again from the ashes the guilty man to be judged.

Therefore spare him, O God. Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest.

Amen.

IV. OFFERTORIUM

1. Domine Jesu Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, deliver the souls of all the departed faithful from the pains of hell and from the deep abyss. Deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that hell may not swallow them, and they may not fall into darkness.

But may the standard-bearer Saint Michael lead them into the holy light, which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and his seed.

2. Hostias We offer unto Thee, Lord, sacrifices and prayers of praise: Do Thou receive them on behalf of those souls whom we commemorate this day: Grant them, Lord, to pass from death to life, which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and his seed.

V. SANCTUS

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest.

VI. BENEDICTUS

Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

VII. AGNUS DEI

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant them rest. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant them eternal rest.

VIII. COMMUNIO

Let eternal light shine upon them, Lord, among Thy saints forever, for Thou art merciful. Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let eternal light shine upon them.

Program notes © 2011. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

GENERAL TERMS Cadence: The conclusion to a phrase, movement, or piece based on a recognizable melodic formula, harmonic progression, or dissonance resolution Cadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or composition Chorale: A hymn tune of the German Protestant Church, or one similar in style CCChord:Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality Contrapuntal: See counterpoint Counterpoint: A term that describes the combination of simultaneously sounding musical lines Da capo: Repeated from the beginning Diatonic: Melody or harmony drawn primarily from the tones of the major or minor scale Figured bass: A bass part provided with figures (numerals) to indicate harmonies. Primarily used in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fugue: A piece of music in which a short melody is stated by one voice and then imitated by the other voices in succession, reappearing throughout the entire piece in all the voices at different places K.: Abbreviation for Köchel, the chronological list of all the works of Mozart made by Ludwig von Köchel Legato: Smooth, even, without any break between notes Nocturne: A piece of a dreamily romantic or sentimental character, without fixed form Polyphony: A term used to designate music in more than one part and the style in which all or several of the musical parts move to some extent independently Scale: The series of tones which form (a) any major or minor key or (b) the chromatic scale of successive semi-tonic steps Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Sonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications. Tempo: The speed of music Tonality: The orientation of melodies and harmonies towards a specific pitch or pitches Tonic: The keynote of a scale Treble: A high vocal or instrumental part Triad: A three-tone chord composed of a given tone (the “root”) with its third and fifth in ascending order in the scale