Commonwealth Chorale to Perform Mozart’s Requiem March 26 and April 2

FARMVILLE – The Commonwealth Chorale will present Mozart’s iconic Requiem on Sunday, March 26, 3:00 p.m. at Farmville United Methodist Church, 212 High Street, and again on Sunday, April 2, 3:00 p.m. at College Church, 418 College Road, at Hampden-Sydney.  Both performances are free of charge; no tickets are required.  The Commonwealth Chorale is led by Artistic Director Norma Williams and accompanied by pianist and composer Dr. R. David Salvage.  Soprano soloists are Meg Sandridge-Mangum and Sarah Reynolds; alto solos are sung by Marilyn Swanson, Joanne Rice, Laura Glasscock and Liz Carson.  Tenor soloists are Paul Robelen and Alex Haskins, while bass solos are sung by Willard Pierce, Robert Horn and John Eastby. For further information about the Commonwealth Chorale, call 434-392-7545 or visit its website at: www.commonwealthchorale.org.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, perhaps the most remarkable and prolific musical genius in history, was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756. At age three, the boy began to pick out chords on the clavier, and by the next year was able to compose brief musical pieces which his father wrote down. Because he began composing at such a young age and worked so relentlessly, even to the point of continuing to compose on his deathbed, his lifetime output was enormous. Despite the vast number of his compositions and the rapidity at which he produced them, Mozart seldom made a mistake. A large number of his scores survive in his careful and exceptionally accurate handwriting, showing no errors or corrections of any kind.  Although he died at the tragically early age of thirty-five, the world is fortunate that his too-brief musical career was brimming with creation.

It seems fitting that the work Mozart was composing on his deathbed was the profoundly moving Requiem, the traditional Mass for the Faithful Departed.  The monumental work is unique in his repertoire for its unusual orchestration.  Using a creative blend of instruments, including basset horns, bassoons, trombones, a continuo section of organ, and strings in lower registers, Mozart achieved a musical portrait of grief, pain, and lament that is unexcelled in its raw intensity and emotional power. The best known of all the choruses is probably the heartbreakingly lovely “Lacrimosa,” the first eight bars of which many scholars believe to be the last music Mozart ever composed.

For all of its solemnity, throughout Requiem there is an underlying current of hope, peace, and redemption. Despite the somber subject, even when dealing with the music of death, indeed with death itself, Mozart’s faith in God along with his naturally optimistic disposition would not permit him to write music that was wholly sorrowful.   In Requiem, perhaps it was Mozart’s ability to counter the anguish and terror of death with transcendent faith that has captured the human imagination and made his last composition a work for the ages.  The Commonwealth Chorale is proud to bring this sublime masterwork to the communities of Southside Virginia.