This week on Choral Concert, Peter Togni brings us to the ultimate question, the vexing issue of what lies beyond this mortal coil, with an incredible performance of Mozart’s Requiem.
Whatever you think happens to us in the hereafter, the contemplation of this profound question has led to the creation of some of the greatest music in the western choral tradition.
Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor was in recent times made famous by Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus (later made into a movie) in which a mysterious messenger appears and orders Mozart to write a Requiem mass, giving no explanation for the order. Mozart then came to believe that the piece was meant to be the mass for his own funeral.
Whether or not this is true, there is no doubt that this work is one of the most beautiful, tender, and soulful works by one of the greatest composers of western music.
On this week's edition of Choral Concert, you will hear it performed by the Latvian State Chorus and the Latvian National Symphony.
Choral Concert, the “great beyond” edition. Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., (9:30 - 11:30 NT) on CBC Radio 2.
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