Prom 69: "Mozart's 'Requiem' Re-Imagined", Pygmalion, Pichon, Thurs. 7 Sept. 2023

[bluestateprommer]

Thursday 7 September 2023
19:00
Royal Albert Hll

Traditional: Plainsong 'In paradisum'

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
(a) Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr), K. 626
Interspersed with:
(b) 'Ach, zu kurz ist unsers Lebens Lauf', K. 228/515b (first performance at The Proms)
(c) Masonic Funeral Music (Maurerische Trauermusik), K. 477/479a
(d) Kyrie in D minor, K. 90 (first performance at The Proms)
(e) Thamos, King of Egypt – 'Ne pulvis et cinis'
(f) Five Solfeggios – No. 2 (first performance at The Proms)
(g) 'Quis te comprehendat' (first performance at The Proms)
(h) Two Church Songs – No. 2: 'O Gottes Lamm' (first performance at The Proms)

Sandrine Piau, soprano
Beth Taylor, mezzo-soprano
Laurence Kilsby, tenor
Alex Rosen, bass
Malakai Bayoh, treble (Proms debut artist)

Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e5qhj5

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-69-mozarts-requiem/

[Ein Heldenleben]

This Mozart Requiem mash-up is firmly in the category of “bold experiment.” Some of the solo singing and instrument playing esp intonation just isn’t up to it. Chorus are good though,
And what was that sudden pause about ? I thought we’d lost the broadcast signal.

PS it can’t be Erin Morley singing Sop can it ? As printed above .She’s usually phenomenally accurate.

[crb11]

The soprano was Sandrine Piau ("stepping in for Erin Morley"). I'd have expected her to be good, but only heard the first ten minutes of the broadcast before having to go out so can't comment yet.

[smittims]

Well, at least the idea is not 'unhistorical'. Some of Mozart's own concerts were a sort of melange with a symphony broken up around vocal items. And the first performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis was of three movements billed as 'hymns' . And I've no doubt there was applause between the movements .

[Keraulophone]

Did I hear, at some point, the Adagio (iii) from the 'Great' Serenade in B flat with choral backing? Where was that indicated in the programme list?

It felt like a pleasant surprise until the choir came in!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Did I hear, at some point, the Adagio (iii) from the 'Great' Serenade in B flat with choral backing? Where was that indicated in the programme list?

It felt like a pleasant surprise until the choir came in!

Yes indeed you did. But what was happening with the piece that came to an abrupt halt and then restarted ?

[silvestrione]

Yes indeed you did. But what was happening with the piece that came to an abrupt halt and then restarted ?

Yes I was baffled. Wondered if it was marking one of the unfinished moments in the original? I don't know it all that well (though it was billed as the Sussmayr completion, of course)

[edashtav]

This mongrel seems to be the child of a fully dramatised production at the Aix Festival a few years ago:

https://youtu.be/BkhYD1zA92s?si=yIELO5diZYxWR5eg

[LeWoiDeWeigate]

Yes I was baffled. Wondered if it was marking one of the unfinished moments in the original? I don't know it all that well (though it was billed as the Sussmayr completion, of course)

The 16 bars of 'Amen' were what WA wrote rather than the overly-bouncy version we have with Sussmayr (which are SO obviously not Mozart that I don't know why we just don't leave them out...)

I was in the hall for the event and on the whole it was fabulous - I've never heard the Dies Irae sung with such venom and I loved it - too many MDs I've sung it with seem to take Mozart as overly fluffy and I love that Pichon decided to go for it...

The other pieces around the Requiem were enlightening and massively educational in terms of what could/should have been. I thought the Treble was brave but ultimately unnecessary - although the three groups of sopranos singing in echoes against him at the end was very special indeed (but I doubt it would have worked on the wireless...)

For those of us who have sung the Requiem to death (see what I did there?) it was cleansing to see it done in a different way.

[Barbirollians]

I would urge forumites to look up the Radio 4 episode of Tales from the Stave on the Requiem - its fascinating - and I rather tend to the view that there is more Mozart in it than some accept - as one of the contributors to that programme noted - if Sussmayr wrote the whole of the Benedictus how come he didn't write in his whole career anything anywhere near as good.

[Barbirollians]

Regardless of the interpolations - I found this an ordinary account of the Requiem with a rather underpowered choir and Sandrine Piau seemed to struggle to be heard in the RAH.