Kapiti Chorale: Mozart Requiem (Duncan Druce completion)

• Date: 28/11/2026 15:00
• Location: Te Raukura ki Kāpiti, Raumati Beach
• Tickets: Adults $35 | Students $15 (Accompanied children under 12 are free)

Requiem in D minor, K. 626 — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Completion by Duncan Druce

Mozart received the commission for his Requiem in 1791 through an intermediary whose secrecy helped create the mystery that still surrounds the work. The patron was Count Franz von Walsegg, who wanted a memorial for his young wife, Anna. Mozart was already occupied with La clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute, and serious illness repeatedly interrupted his progress. He died on 5 December 1791, aged 35, leaving the score unfinished.
Mozart completed the opening Introitus and left substantial material for the Kyrie, the Sequence and the Offertorium: vocal parts, bass lines and varying degrees of orchestral detail. His widow Constanze, concerned that she might have to return the commission fee, asked several musicians to finish the work. Most of the task eventually fell to Mozart’s young assistant Franz Xaver Süssmayr, whose completion became the version most frequently performed.
Süssmayr made it possible for the Requiem to enter the repertoire, but musicians have long debated where his work ends and Mozart’s intentions begin. British composer, violinist and musicologist Duncan Druce produced a new completion in 1984. He retained Mozart’s surviving music while reconsidering the orchestration and passages left incomplete. His most striking addition is the extended Amen after the Lacrimosa: a double fugue developed from a surviving Mozart sketch that Süssmayr did not use. Druce’s version was performed at the BBC Proms in 1991 and published by Novello in 1993.
The opening movements establish the work’s sombre sound world, moving from the plea for eternal rest into the tightly worked fugue of the Kyrie. The six movements of the Sequence alternate between the collective force of the choir and the more personal voices of the soloists. The Dies irae erupts with the terror of judgement; the trombone announces the call of the Tuba mirum; and the Rex tremendae shifts from grandeur to an urgent plea for mercy. The solo quartet brings a more intimate appeal in the Recordare, before the Confutatis sets fierce choral writing against quieter prayer. The Lacrimosa rises from grief towards Druce’s vigorous Amen.
The Offertorium brings rapid contrasts, dramatic outbursts and energetic fugal writing, relieved by the gentler motion of the Hostias. Brightness returns in the Sanctus and the soloists’ Benedictus. The Agnus Dei then leads back towards the darker colours of the opening. In the final Communio, earlier music returns: the Requiem closes with the same fugal material heard near its beginning, completing the circle while leaving its central questions of death, judgement and peace unresolved.
The note on Mozart’s Requiem and the Duncan Druce completion is based on programme notes by Samuel Foxon, March 2024, and adapted with his permission.
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The programme for the first half of the concert is as follows:

V’amo di core — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Written in about 1782, V’amo di core (“I love you tenderly”) is an intricate vocal canon. A single melodic idea passes from one group of voices to another, gradually building a rich, closely woven texture. Its warmth and brevity make it a natural opening for the combined choirs.

Hine, e Hine — Princess Te Rangi Pai, arranged by Andrew Withington
Written by Princess Te Rangi Pai, the stage name of New Zealand singer and composer Fanny Rose Howie, Hine, e Hine is one of Aotearoa’s best-loved lullabies. Its words comfort a tired, weeping child and assure her that she is held in love. The song became familiar to generations of New Zealanders through the Goodnight Kiwi television sign-off.

The Cherry Tree Carol — Traditional
This old English narrative carol can be traced to medieval mystery-play traditions. It tells how a cherry tree bends its branches so that the pregnant Mary can reach its fruit, prompting the doubtful Joseph to recognise the wonder before him. Numerous melodies and versions of the story have developed through oral tradition.

Te Deum laudamus in D major — Antonio Salieri
Salieri wrote this festive setting of the ancient hymn of praise for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in 1790. Ceremonial and dramatic, it reflects the composer’s experience in the opera house while giving the chorus the central role. Salieri was one of Vienna’s leading musicians—far removed from the jealous mediocrity created by later fiction.

Suo-gân — Traditional Welsh lullaby, arranged by Judith Harrington and Kyle Haugen
The title Suo-gân simply means “lullaby”. First recorded in print around 1800, this traditional Welsh song addresses a child resting safely in a mother’s arms. Its quiet melody and intimate scale provide a moment of stillness in the programme, here sung by the four soloists.

Pohutukawa Magic — Felicia Edgecombe
Felicia Edgecombe’s Pohutukawa Magic sets a poem by Riemke Ensing. It is part of Shaky Places, Edgecombe’s cycle of New Zealand poems created for Capital Choir and first performed in 2015. The song finds colour and wonder in the familiar flowering tree of an Aotearoa summer.

World — Felicia Edgecombe
Also drawn from Shaky Places, World sets words by Wellington poet and Capital Choir member Rachel McAlpine. Edgecombe’s music gives a distinctly local voice to the poem, continuing the cycle’s exploration of life, landscape and experience in contemporary Aotearoa.

Te Deum No. 2 in C major, Hob. XXIIIc:2 — Joseph Haydn
Haydn composed his second Te Deum around 1799 for Empress Maria Theresa, an enthusiastic musical patron. There are no soloists: the choir carries the work from its jubilant opening through a more reflective central section to an energetic final fugue. Its compact three-part design brings grandeur and momentum to the long Latin text.

Soon Ah Will Be Done — Traditional spiritual, arranged by William L. Dawson
William L. Dawson published this celebrated arrangement in 1934 while directing the choir of Tuskegee Institute. The spiritual looks beyond present suffering towards rest, freedom and reunion. Dawson turns its repeated phrases into urgent, rhythmically charged choral writing, balancing weariness and grief with a firm sense of hope.