ConcertPulse
Mozart: Requiem
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
What would have happened if Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had had time to complete his Requiem? What worlds might have opened up to us if the then 35-year-old had not been carried off in 1791 by the »severe miliary fever« – a diagnosis that has not been clearly identified to this day? Now his last, most mysterious and existential work has remained a fragment – albeit skilfully completed by Franz Xaver Süßmayr. It is only logical that the world-famous Dresdner Kreuzchor (boys’ choir) understands the fragmentary nature of the Requiem as a quality and sets it with works by a contemporary composer who is known for his deeply spiritual attitude like almost no other: Arvo Pärt. At the Elbphilharmonie, compositions by the Estonian composer are combined with the masterly sounds of Mozart to create a new whole that illuminates death – and life – from a perspective between then and now.