Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Choir: Mozart Requiem
- Date: 02/11/2025 14:00
- Location: Catholic Pro-Cathedral, 373 Manchester Street
- Tickets: $30.00 & $25.00
Celebrated in many countries as “The Day of the Dead”, All Souls’ Day, November 2nd, will be marked this year at the Catholic Pro-Cathedral by a 2 pm performance of Mozart’s Requiem by the CBS Choir and Orchestra, with soloists. Admission will be by programme $30 and $25, available at the door, with payment by cash or eftpos.
The famous Requiem was popularized mainly by the film Amadeus, which painted the composer creating music for his own death at the instigation of his rival Salieri. Much of that remarkable story is historically accurate, and its last pages were dictated on Mozart’s deathbed in 1791. Nevertheless, the work contains some of his most heartfelt and expressive writing. The dramatic liturgical text summons a wide range of musical styles, ranging from majestic invocations of divine power to gentle pleas for mercy – such as the poignant Lacrymosa.
The Requiem will be preceded by a short bracket of commemorative choral music conducted by Henry Nicholson, including the Tchaikovsky Old Slavonic funeral sentence Blazhenni ‘How Blessed Are They’,
On this significant feast day, at the 11 am Solemn Mass the CBS musicians will present Missa Solemnis, K.337, the last and finest of Mozart’s Masses, with a festive wind and brass scoring enhancing a free and independent orchestral role. Expressive highlights are the poignant Kyrie, and beautiful soprano solos in tender dialogue with woodwind at Et incarnatus and the Agnus Dei. Choral treasures include a sobbing unison Crucifixus, and a sombre A minor fugal Benedictus, unique among Mozart’s Salzburg Masses.
For the Requiem, soloists will be Nicola Holt, Melanie Williams, Wally Enright and Ken Joblin. The orchestra will be led by Natalia M. Lomeiko, and musical director will be Don Whelan.
The cathedral musicians maintain an extensive repertoire of masses and motets, sung on Sunday at the 11 a.m. Solemn Choral Mass. New members are welcome to the 7.30 pm Wednesday evening rehearsal at the CBS Music Centre. Sight reading ability is expected. Those interested are invited to contact the CBS Musical Director, Don Whelan, phone 358-5873.
The CBS musical year will conclude with their annual Messiah at 1.30 pm on Sunday, 7 December, and a performance of the Haydn St Nicholas Mass at the Christmas Midnight Mass.
