A tri-nation chorus brings Mozart’s Requiem to Goa

It’s one of the most intriguing stories in the history of classical music. There’s everything — a braggart Austrian count given to fanfaronade, a young composer who thought he was writing his own Requiem, his death midway through it, and a completed manuscript in which nobody knows who wrote how much. Centuries later,

Mozart

’s Requiem in D minor remains as much a mystery as it was in 1792, when it was first delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned it.

This week, a multinational choir comprising Italians, Brazilians, and Goans will present two performances of the Requiem in Goa. The city-based

Goa University

choir will join forces with the Cantosospeco from Milan and the Rede Cultural Luther King from Sao Paolo, under the baton of

Santiago Lusardi Girelli

. However, quite unlike the exquisite orchestration Mozart envisaged for the Requiem, the 80-member chorus will have to make do with stripped-down accompaniment — two pianists, a Hungarian and a Brazilian, on a single keyboard, playing a transcription of the score by the Austrian master Carl Czerny.

Interestingly, both Churches in which the choir is scheduled to perform the Requiem predate Mozart by over a century. The

Church of St Ignatius of Loyola

at the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol will host the first concert on Wednesday, at 7 pm. Work on it started in 1576, almost two centuries before Mozart. Then, at 6pm on Holy Saturday, the choir will perform at the

Church of St Cajetan

in Old Goa, which was completed in 1661.

A Requiem is a Roman Catholic mass for the dead. Its name comes from the introit of the liturgy, which begins with ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine’ (‘grant them eternal rest, O Lord’). While many composers have set it to music, Mozart’s Requiem is often considered the gold standard.

Its story began in July 1791, when a stranger showed up at Mozart’s door, commissioning the Requiem anonymously for the eccentric von Walsegg, who possibly wanted to pass the work off as his own. A forswunk Mozart, who was quite ill, quickly got to work, but couldn’t complete it. When he died on December 5, 1791, just 35 years old, he had only completed two movements, Requiem Aeternam and Kyrie. He also composed the first eight bars of Lacrimosa. Aptly, the last words he set to music were “that day of tears and mourning”.

After her husband’s death, Mozart’s widow Constanze began an effort to have the Requiem completed, lest the Count withhold or deny payment. Mozart’s pupil, Sussmayer, completed the work and presented it to the Count. Since he is said to have copied the entire manuscript by his own hand, nobody is really sure who wrote how much. And while there have been other completions of the Requiem over the years, notably in the 20th century, it’s Sussmayer’s that’s most iconic and generally accepted as the standard version. It’s also the version the three choirs will perform together in Goa this Holy week.