Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K. 626, I. Introitus - Requiem Aeternam (Choir of New College, Oxford)

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From the album W.A. Mozart, Requiem. Released 2011.
Recordings can be found here:
http://www.newcollegechoir.com/discography-list.html

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam;
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
A hymn becomes you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer;
to you shall all flesh come.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Probably in mid-July [1791], Mozart was commissioned by Count Walsegg-Stuppach, under conditions of secrecy, to compose a Requiem for his wife, who had died on 14 February 1791; work on this was postponed at least until October 1791, after the completion of La clemenza di Tito and Die Zauberflöte. It is likely that Mozart was aware of Walsegg's identity: his friend Puchberg lived in Walsegg's Vienna villa, and the inclusion of basset-horns in the score suggests that Mozart could count on the participation of specific players, who would have been booked far in advance for a date and place already known to him. Later sources describe Mozart's feverish work at the Requiem, after his return from Prague, with premonitions of his own death, but these are hard to reconcile with the high spirits of his letters from much of October. Constanze's earliest account, published in Niemetschek's biography of 1798, states that Mozart 'told her of his remarkable request, and at the same time expressed a wish to try his hand at this type of composition, the more so as the higher forms of church music had always appealed to his genius'. There is no hint that the work was a burden to him, as was widely reported in German newspapers from January 1792 onwards.

By the time of Mozart's final illness, he had completed only the 'Requiem aeternam' in its entirety; from the Kyrie to the 'Confutatis', only the vocal parts and basso continuo were fully written out. At the 'Lacrimosa' only the first eight bars are present for the vocal parts, along with the first two bars for the violins and viola. Sketches for the remaining movements, now mostly lost, probably included vocal parts and basso continuo. Mozart was confined to bed at the end of the November; he was attended by the two leading Viennese doctors, Closset and Sallaba, and nursed by Constanze and her youngest sister, Sophie. His condition seemed to improve on 3 December, and the next day his friends Schack, Hofer and the bass F.X. Gerl gathered to sing over with him parts of the unfinished Requiem. He was possibly also visited by Salieri. That evening, however, his condition worsened, and Closset, summoned from the theatre, applied cold compresses; the effect was to send Mozart into shock. He died just before 1 a.m. on 5 December. The cause of his death was registered as 'hitziges Friesel Fieber' (severe miliary fever, where 'miliary' refers to a rash resembling millet-seeds) and later diagnosed as 'rheumatische Entzündungsfieber' (rheumatic inflammatory fever) on evidence from Closset and Sallaba. This seems consistent with the symptoms of Mozart's medical history (Bär, G1966, 2/1972), more so than various rival diagnoses, such as uraemia (favoured by Greither, G1970, 3/1977), and Davies, G1989); there is no credible evidence to support the notion that he was poisoned, by Salieri or anyone else. (Oxford Music Online)

Видео Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K. 626, I. Introitus - Requiem Aeternam (Choir of New College, Oxford) канала Kate Price