| | | Mozart Requiem - 18 March 2012 |
 The
Linton Singers and invited orchestra performed Mozart's Requiem Mass
in D minor (K. 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Sunday 18th March
to over 100 visitors. in St. Mungo’s Church.
Composed in
Vienna in 1791 the Requiem was left unfinished at the composer's death
on December 5th of that year.
Even
by his own amazing standards, the last few months of Mozart's life must
have been extraordinarily productive. On September 6th he conducted the
premiere of La Clemenza di Tito. On September 30th, the Magic Flute was
premiered. On Oct 7th he completed the Clarinet Concerto in A. By
December 5th he was dead, probably of a rheumatic fever.
But
before that he managed to put to paper a substantial amount of his
Requiem in response to a commission now known to be from the Count von
Walsegg, an aristocrat who enjoyed commissioning musical works and
attempting to pass them off as his own. After Mozart's death, his widow
Constanza approached a number of his pupils to complete the work, and
in the end the task fell to Sussmayr who may well have had access to
Mozart's own unpublished manuscripts. Certainly his work drew on
Mozart's inspiration. As the Rough Guide to Classical Music says, "It's
impossible to hear the Requiem as anything other than Mozart's
acceptance of fragile mortality"
THE LINTON SINGERS was
founded in West Linton (17 miles south of Edinburgh) in 1986, the choir
now has a membership of around 30, some coming from outwith the area,
attracted by the opportunity to sing an extremely varied repertoire
ranging from early music to that of present day composers as different
as Ronald Stevenson and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Recent performances have
included works by early composers such as Gabrieli, Cozzolani,
Praetorius, Purcell and Monteverdi, as well as Schubert's Mass in G,
Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Choral Fantasia. Performances are
orchestrated by many instrumentalists who join with us in the sheer joy
of making music.
As well as performing locally on a regular
basis, the Linton Singers have held concerts in Rosslyn Chapel,
Edinburgh and Stirling Castles, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Greyfriars
Kirk, Canongate Kirk and other venues in and around Edinburgh. The
choir have also have travelled to Stockholm, Prague, Paris, Kirkwall in
Orkney and Montbeliard in France.
THE DIRECTOR OF MUSIC for the
Linton Singers is Prof Murray Camp bell, who is also Director of Music
for the Edinburgh Renaissance Band and the Scottish Gabrieli Ensemble
and he plays trombone with the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. Murray is
a leading expert in his field of Musical Acoustics and is Assistant
Curator of the collection of musical instruments held by the University
of Edinburgh - and seems to be able to play them all!
The ticket sales are going to the
church organ restoration fund, which this year is planning to build on last
years work of refurbishing the Great Organ, by completing the work to
refurbish the Swell Organ
Back to Top
| |
Home
| Services | Church Groups | Events | News
| History| Contact Us 
