Organization

Verbier Festival

Pianist

András Schiff

Singer

Soprano

Ying Fang

Mezzo-soprano

Magdalena Kožená

Tenor

Stanislas de Barbeyrac

Bass

Alexandros Stavrakakis

Others

Münchener Bach-Chor

Orchestra

Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra

VFCO / Schiff

Bagnes

Switzerland

Salle des Combins

Beloved conductor and pianist András Schiff returns to the helm of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra alongside four fabulous vocal soloists and the Münchener Bach-Chor in a 100% Mozart program, live from the Salle des Combins at the 2022 Verbier Festival!

The evening's festivities are dedicated to the music of the Salzburg-born genius's final year of life, opening with the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major performed by Schiff himself—something of a spiritual farewell testament to the piano, a masterwork of tonal clarity and glittering harmonies, suffused with a bittersweet tranquility unique to Mozart. The centerpiece of the program, though, is the fabled Requiem, uncontested high point of sacred music—a sublime mix of ecstatic devotion and musical invention, sung by four renowned soloists: soprano Ying Fang, mezzo Magdalena Kožená, tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac, and bass Alexandros Stavrakakis. The concert comes to a magnificent conclusion with the celebrated motet Ave verum for choir and strings, a perfect polyphonic synthesis of Mozart's art and a veritable gift for the human voice.

Credits

Photo: Sir András Schiff © Nadia-F. Romanini

VFCO / Schiff: Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

An all-Mozart programme featuring the famous and masterful Requiem in D minor.

All three of this evening’s works were written in 1791, the year of Mozart’s death. Completed in January, the Piano Concerto no 27 is gently intimate and at times wistful. Scored minus clarinets, trombones and timpani, it encases an exquisitely simple Larghetto between smoothly flowing outer movements whose soft warmth is offset by poignant switches to the minor. The Requiem was begun that summer, requested by a wealthy anonymous commissioner who turned out to be a count wanting to pass it off as his own. Only the Requiem was finished by Mozart’s December death, with voice parts and bass lines sketched from the Dies Irae through to Hostias. It was completed by Mozart’s pupil, Franz Sűssmayer. The serene, sotto voce motet Ave Verum Corpus also dates from the summer, written for Mozart’s friend Anton Stoll, choirmaster of Baden, for the feast of Corpus Christi.

English

Ett helt Mozart-program med det berömda och mästerliga Requiem i d-moll.

Alla tre av kvällens verk skrevs 1791, året för Mozarts död. Pianokonsert nr 27, som blev färdig i januari, är mjukt intim och ibland vemodig. Med minus klarinetter, tromboner och pauker omsluter den ett utsökt enkelt Larghetto mellan mjukt flödande yttre rörelser vars mjuka värme uppvägs av gripande växlar till moll. Requiem inleddes den sommaren, efterfrågat av en rik anonym kommissarie som visade sig vara en greve som ville utge det som sin egen. Endast Requiem avslutades av Mozarts död i december, med röstpartier och baslinjer skissade från Dies Irae till Hostias. Det färdigställdes av Mozarts elev, Franz Sűssmayer. Den fridfulla, sotto voce-motetten Ave Verum Corpus härstammar också från sommaren, skriven för Mozarts vän Anton Stoll, körledare i Baden, till Corpus Christi-festen.

svenska

VFCO / Schiff by Various, From (2022/2022), Salle des Combins, Bagnes, Switzerland

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Programme, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

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