A treat for lovers of Mozart

Here’s a treat for lovers of Mozart

Since their sell-out performance of Fauré’s Requiem in October, Newbury Choral Society have been working hard on an even more famous requiem, that by Mozart.

The concert on Saturday, April 13 will feature this well-loved and popular work as well Mozart’s Te Deum and Laudate Dominum.

Making up the programme will be an orchestral performance of Mozart’s Divertimento in D.

Both choir and orchestra will be conducted by music director Joe Tobin, who has already during his short tenure made a favourable impression on Newbury music lovers.

The works span over two decades of the life of this most prodigious musician and contain examples of secular as well as sacred music. His Requiem was famously unfinished on his death, and some mystery and intrigue surround it. Although commissioned by Count Walsegg-Stuppach, the work became increasingly viewed by the ailing Mozart as his own requiem.

After his death, at the request of his wife Constanze, Franz Süssmayr, his assistant, completed the version now so familiar to concert-goers throughout the world. The Te Deum was his only venture into this form and shows both his youthful exuberance and structural echoes of Michael Haydn (brother of Joseph).

Laudate Dominum is part of Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and is often performed on its own as a concert piece. It will be an opportunity to showcase the talent of the exciting young soprano Claire Ward. The hand-picked professional orchestra will perform the Divertimento in D KV136, a youthful composition written in Salzburg in 1772.

The concert will take place at St Nicolas Church, Newbury, at 7.30pm on Saturday, April 13.

Tickets are available from choir members, online from the NCS website at http://www.newburychoral.org.uk/tickets

Tickets will also be available at the door.