Maig 2021
Repertoire
W.A. Mozart: Requiem, KV 626
Performers
Irene Mas, soprano
Tànit Bono, mezzosoprano
Marc Sala, tenor
Germán de la Riva, baritone
Cor Francesc Valls (Pere Lluís Biosca, cond.)
Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae
Salvador Mas, conductor
Programme notes
AN UNFINISHED END
We say goodbye the season with one of the most performed works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the completion that the maestro Salvador Mas offers us. It is curious that this piece has become so well-known without being a finished creation of the Austrian composer.
There are many myths surrounding this work: a strange messenger who carried out the commission, a dying Mozart working tirelessly on the composition until the last moment, or a Salieri at the bedside transferring Wolfgang’s ideas to the score. The image that Miloš Forman’s film Amadeus leaves us is far from reality.
The year 1791, apart from being the last of Mozart’s life, was a very productive year, and Requiem was not his only obsession. Other well-known works by the author came to light that same year: the Concerto for clarinet and orchestra or the opera The Magic Flute are some of the projects that had kept him busy in the months before the fateful outcome and that he did not have time to finish.
Although it is true that Mozart left many parts unwritten, the person given the responsibility of completing Requiem was his disciple Franz Xaver Süssmayr. But this great work would not have been possible without the inspirational drafts of the great master.
CONCERT DATES
Mozart’s Requiem
Biography Cor Francesc Valls
Cor Francesc Valls was founded in November 2003 to participate regularly in conventual masses in Barcelona Cathedral, offering an extensive weekly repertoire of motets and polyphonic songs based on the texts of each liturgical day. Since January 2015, Pere Lluís Biosca has been the principal conductor.
The work of Cor Francesc Valls combines both an interpretation of the religious polyphony of all time and the unpublished works of the old chapel masters of Barcelona Cathedral. The most relevant example of this recovery process can be found in the Cant de la Sibil·la, where the 16th century liturgy and costumes have been reconstituted, preserved in the chapter archives. Every year a final song is commissioned from a prestigious composer.
Among their activities in concerts and public events, the performance of the Hangman Opera at the Gran Teatre del Liceo (2007), the annual participation in the Sant Jordi mass at the Palau de la Generalitat, the Lenten concert (2013) in Montserrat, the Cervera Easter Festival (2014), the staged interpretation of the Cant de la Sibil·la in the Duomo of Milan (2015) and Handel’s Messiah in the Sagrada Familia (2015).
In 2017, the choir participated in Cants i Danses del Llibre Vermell de Montserrat at the Antiga dels Pirineus Music Festival and performed the opera by Purcell Dido & Aeneas with the l’Orquestra Illa de Menorca in Maó.