Westerville Symphony presents Mozart's Requiem

The Westerville Symphony at Otterbein University is proud to continue its 35th season with the presentation of Wolfgang Amadeus’s iconic Requiem in d minor. The concert is in collaboration with the Otterbein University Choirs, under the direction of Dr. Gayle Walker, and the four solo parts feature Otterbein alumni and faculty, which includes Cabot Rea, former anchor for NBC4 news.

The unique circumstances surrounding the composition of Mozart’s Requiem are remarkable for their almost Dickensian melodrama.

Just a few weeks before his own death in 1791 at the age of only thirty-five, Mozart was approached by a gentleman acting on behalf of an anonymous patron who wished to commission from him a Requiem Mass. This patron we now know to be Count Franz von Wazlsegg-Stuppach, whose wife had died in February that year. The Count, who was a keen and able amateur musician, wished to be regarded as a major composer and saw in this commemorative commission an opportunity to further his own ends by passing off the Requiem as his own. He therefore conducted all business transactions with Mozart in secrecy so as to preserve his own anonymity; hence the subterfuge of sending a business agent to act on his behalf. On several occasions this gentleman arrived unannounced at the composer’s house. To the dying Mozart, well known for his superstitious nature and quite possibly sensing his own impending demise, these mysterious visitations had all the hallmarks of the supernatural.

By the time he started work on the Requiem Mozart was already terminally ill, and parts of the composition were actually written whilst on his death-bed. In the event, he died before he could complete it, to the great consternation of his widow, Constanze. Payment for the work had already been received, and she feared that if it was handed over incomplete the commissioning patron would refuse to accept it and expect his money to be returned. She therefore decided to elicit the help of some other composer who might be able and willing to finish it for her, but despite several attempts being made, notably by Joseph Eybler and Maximilian Stadler, none came to fruition. Eventually Constanze approached Franz Süssmayr. (notes by John Bawden) The Requiem has been completed several times and we will be performing the original version by Franz Süssmayr.

First on the program will be Mozart’s delightful Symphony no. 36 in C Major, K. 425 otherwise known as the “Linz.” Written over a short 4 four days while Mozart and his wife were visiting friends in Linz, the work marks the beginning of a new magnificent phase in Mozart’s symphonic out-put. It is actually his first symphony to contain a slow introduction, full of suspense and pathos.