Carolina Concert Choir performs “Only Mozart” 2017 Spring Concert April 8

From event organizers:

CAROLINA CONCERT CHOIR’S 2017 SPRING CONCERT “ONLY MOZART”
Choral Performance with Orchestra. Reception will follow the concert.

“Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to conduct the Mozart Requiem with a variety of musicians from college students to professional ensembles. The most humbling, impactful performance took place on September 11, 2002 – a year to the second from when the first plane struck the Twin Towers,” reminisced Professor Lawrence Doebler, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Carolina Concert Choir. “The packed audience and all the performers sat in absolute silence for 30 minutes before that void was shattered by pealing chimes. The orchestra began at exactly the moment of impact. When the piece was completed, silence returned as the music faded and the musicians and audience filed out of the hall.”

Two hundred and twenty-six years after Mozart’s death, Maestro Doebler will conduct the Carolina Concert Choir and orchestra in their performance of Mozart’s Ave Verum (K.618, which Mozart composed in 48 hours) and Requiem Mass in D Minor (K.626) on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. in the Bo Thomas Auditorium on the Blue Ridge Community College campus.

Professor Doebler will engage the audience with interesting information about Mozart and the pieces to enhance the audience listening experience. There will be no intermission, and a reception will follow the concert.

Today, as always, Mozart’s Requiem Mass is one of the crown jewels of sacred music. It consists of 14 movements for a four-part chorus of mixed voices, four solo voices and an orchestra focusing on strings, with woodwinds, brass and tympani.

Much controversy, deception, confusion and mystery exists over the composition of Mozart’s Requiem, which remained unfinished at his death at the young age of 35.  The piece was originally commissioned anonymously by Count Franz von Walstegg-Stuppach to commemorate the anniversary of his wife’s death. Historians recount that Mozart was not in the best state of mind when he received the commission to compose a requiem mass. After Mozart’s death, his wife, Constanze, gave the piece to another composer, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, to complete. Süssmayr later delivered the work to Walstegg-Stuppach claiming to have written the “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” himself, as he was known to have done with other works. 

Over the centuries, scholars and composers have attempted to discern Mozart’s original work and complete movements based upon their investigations and research. Despite the controversy over how much of the music is actually Mozart’s, the commonly performed Süssmayr version has become widely accepted by the public. 

The Requiem was performed for the first time just five days after Mozart’s death in its unfinished state at St. Michael’s Chapel in Vienna. Over the centuries, the piece has been performed at memorial services for Haydn, Napoleon I, Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Berlioz, Chopin, and John F. Kennedy, as well as on the anniversary of Mozart’s own death.

Doebler has conducted Mozart’s Requiem six times prior to the upcoming April concert. “At this performance,” explains Doebler, “we welcome all to think of departed family and friends, and enjoy the stirring music of the genius, Mozart.”

Tickets are $22 for adults and $5 for students with ID and can be purchased at The Wine Market Project, the Hendersonville Visitor’s Center, online at www.carolinaconcertchoir.org, from choir members, and at the door.

Now in its 37^th season, the Carolina Concert Choir is an auditioned chorus of voices from several Western North Carolina counties and upstate South Carolina. Auditions are always open. To audition, contact Professor Lawrence Doebler at (607) 351-2585 or ldoebler@ithaca.edu.