Mozart REQUIEM Completed by Duncan Druce

WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB Mozart REQUIEM completed by Duncan Druce Ruth Holton mezzo soprano Frances Bourne contralto Simon Wall tenor William Townend bass Winchester Music Club and Orchestra Winchester College Glee Club and Quiristers Brian Howells leader Nicholas Wilks conductor WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL Thursday 25 November 2004 at 7:30 p.m. Winchester Music Club is a registered charity No 1095619 Programme W. A. MOZART Masonic Funeral Music K477 Serenade in C minor K388 Interval of 20 minutes Requiem K626 (completed by Duncan Druce) The concert will end at approximately 9:30 pm. We are indebted to the Friends of Winchester Music Club and to Winchester College, who help to make these concerts possible. The Completion of Mozart’s Requiem Mozart’s Requiem has become such an important and popular masterpiece that it still comes as something of a shock when we remember that he left it incomplete at the time of his death, and that it was completed by a pupil, Franz Süssmayr. We know that Mozart left the choruses, solos and an outline harmony for all the movements except the “Lacrimosa” (which breaks off after 8 bars), the following “Amen” (which also breaks off after a few bars), and the “Sanctus”, “Benedictus”, “Osanna”, “Agnus Dei” and “Lux Aeterna”. Mozart suggested that the final “Lux Aeterna” could use exactly the same music as the “Introitus” and “Kyrie”, a suggestion which Süssmayr adopted after a slightly shortened introduction. Süssmayr’s completion of the Requiem has become the standard performing version of the work for over two hundred years, but there are arguments for looking more closely at the acceptance of this view. Although Mozart’s widow Constanze eventually commissioned Süssmayr to complete her husband’s Requiem, he was not her first choice, and she approached several composers first, but without success. Mozart, who was notoriously scathing of mediocre musicians, did not have a particularly high regard for his pupil, a view which Constanze appears to have shared. However, the musical ideas behind the movements written by Süssmayr are undoubtedly strong, and are probably derived from Mozart’s own sketches. Moreover, as his pupil, Süssmayr had unique access to Mozart’s work, and the authenticity of style evident in his completion has always been a powerful argument in his favour. However, there are weaknesses in his completion which need to be acknowledged. The second half of his “Lacrimosa” is relatively uneventful, and Süssmayr chose not to use Mozart’s sketches for a thrilling fugal “Amen”, replacing it instead with a slightly dull plagal cadence. Indeed, Süssmayr seems to have had an aversion to writing fugues, since the “Osanna” fugues which complete the “Sanctus” and “Benedictus” are rather perfunctory. Harmonically, too, the “Benedictus”, based on music by Mozart, is static. Such observations are not merely academic. There is a sense in listening to Süssmayr’s completion that something is missing, and in the 1990’s Duncan Druce was commissioned to produce a different completion – a daunting task which he undertook with modesty and thoroughness. His completion, which is being performed in Winchester for the first time this evening, reworks Süssmayr’s movements, but retains the musical ideas on which they are based. The completions of the “Lacrimosa”, “Agnus Dei” and “Benedictus” are harmonically more adventurous and expressive, and the more extensive working out of the “Osanna” fugues is a delight. Perhaps the most exciting discovery is the magnificent “Amen”. This double fugue gives the second movement an added grandeur, and because it lies at the midway point of the work it complements beautifully the double fugue which opens and ends the Requiem. The work as a whole gains enormously from its inclusion. Having played, sung and conducted Süssmayr’s completion, which will always retain a unique position, I was drawn to the idea of looking afresh at Mozart’s score. Learning this new version has been a rare privilege, and has given all of us in Winchester Music Club, Winchester College Glee Club and the Quiristers an opportunity of hearing a familiar masterpiece with new ears. Duncan Druce does not claim to have produced a superior work, but he has given us another valid viewpoint. As he writes in his introduction to the new edition: “The Requiem is above all a major work of Mozart for which no definitive version exists. We can learn most from it, and be most inspired by it, if we experience it from different directions. Some aspects of Mozart’s vision will have been obscured by one completion and enhanced by another.” Such a realistic claim invites the greatest respect, and I believe Mozart’s music is enhanced and not diminished by the opportunity to see it in a new light. Mozart is also at his most personal and dramatic in the two companion works – the imposing Masonic Funeral Music and the dark Serenade in C minor. © Nicholas Wilks, November 2004. THE REQUIEM I Requiem aeternam Tuba mirum spargen sonum, Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: Per sepulchra regionum, Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Coget omnes ante thronum. Te decet hymnus, Mors stupebit et natura, Deus in Sion, Cum resurget creatura, Et tibi redetur votum in Jerusalem: Judicanti responsura. Exaudi orationem meam, Liber scriptus proferretur, Ad te omnis caro veniet. In quo tonum continetur, Unde mundus judicetur. II Kyrie Judex ergo cum sedebit, Kyrie eleison, Quidquid latet apparebit: Christe eleison, Nil inultum remanebit. Kyrie eleison. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus III Dies Irae Cum vix justus sit securus? Dies irae, dies illa, Rex tremendae majestatis Solvet saeclum in favilla: Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Teste David cum Sibylla, Salva me, fons pietatis. Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando Judex est venturus, Recordare Jesu pie, Cuncta stricte discusurus. Quod sum causa tuae viae: Ne me perdas illa die, Libera eas de ore leonis, Quaerens me, sedisti lassus: Ne absorbeat eas tartarus, Redemisti crucem passus: Ne cadant in obscurum. Tantus labor non sit cassus, Sed signifer sanctun Michael Juste judex ultionis, Repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam: Donum fac remissionis Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, Ante diem rationis. Et semini eius. Ingemisco tanquam reus: Culpa rubet vultus meus; Hostias et preces tibi Domine, Supplicanti parce deus. Laudis offerimus: Qui Mariam absolvisti, Tu suscipe pro animabus illis, Et latronem exaudisti, Quarum hodie memoriam facimus. Mihi quoque spem dedisti. Fac eas, Domine, de morte Preces meae non sunt dignae: Transire ad vitam. Sed tu bonus fac benigne, Ne perenni cremer igne. V Sanctus Inter oves locum praesta, Sanctus, Sanctus! Et ab haedis me sequestra, Dominus Deus Sabaoth! Stauens in parte dextra Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua! Osanna in excelsis! Confutatis maledictis, Flammis acribus addictis, VI Benedictus Voca me cum benedictis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Oro supplex et acclinis, Osanna in excelsis! Cor contritum quasi cinis: Gere curam mei finis. VII Agnus Dei Agnus Dei Lacrimos dies illa, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Qua resurget ex favilla Dona eis requiem. Judicandus homo reus. Requiem sempiternam. Huic ergo parce Deus, Pie Jesu Domine. VIII Communio Dona eis requiem. Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine: Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Amen. Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, Quia pius es. IV Offertorium Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae! Libera animas omnium fidelium Defunctorum de poenis inferni, Et de profundo lacu: Ruth Holton (Soprano) read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was a choral exhibitioner. She made her first solo recording in Bach’s St. John Passion for Deutsche Grammophon under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and rapidly became well known for her performances of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. Ruth’s discography includes Carissimi’s Jephtha, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Bach cantatas with Gardiner and Ton Koopman, Mozart’s Salzburg Masses, Handel’s Messiah, Schütz’s Christmas Story, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Handel’s Susanna and Bach’s Mass in B minor. During the years 2000 and 2001 she completed a project to record all the sacred cantatas by Bach with the Holland Boys’ Choir. The clarity of Ruth’s voice makes her a popular choice for contemporary music. Projects have included a programme of new works at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, a BBC television documentary with music by Peter Salem, recordings of Grand Pianola Music by John Adams and pieces by Steve Reich, and specially commissioned works by David Briggs, Howard Thomas and others. Ruth is a regular performer at several European festivals, including Flanders, Aldeburgh, Greenwich, The Three Choirs Festival and the Bachfest in Leipzig. She has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Gustav Leonhardt in Rome and Vienna, and with Fretwork in Finland and Germany. She has had a long association with the choir of St. Thomas’ Leipzig in Bach’s own church, and she performed his Mass in B minor in the Bachfest 2000, which was televised in Europe and Japan to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. As a recitalist Ruth has given concerts of Lieder and French Song in London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bath, and Oxford. This season has seen her singing a new commission by Adrian Lucas in Worcester Cathedral, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in France and several performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers in England and Wales. Plans for this year include concerts in Winchester, Beverley and Bath, and a recital series featuring Schumann’s Liederkreis with her accompanist Peter Nardone. Ruth has been a coach at Choral Symposia in Gdansk (1999 and 2001), The International Summer School at Dartington (2002) and Madrid (2003). Frances Bourne (Mezzo-soprano) studied singing at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. Since graduating in 2000 she has sung for many of Europe’s leading conductors including Trevor Pinnock, Sir Roger Norrington, Emmanuelle Haïm, Harry Christophers, Andrew Manze and Sir Neville Mariner.

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