Christ Church Camerata Unveils New Ending to Mozart’s Requiem
- intouch Magazine
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
Newcastle’s chamber orchestra brings the city its first performance in 20 years of the composer’s iconic deathbed piece – with a brand-new ending by composer-director David Banney and an all-star cast of soloists.
Mozart’s Requiem in D minor has become an icon of suffering, death and redemption. Written in the last few months of the composer’s death in 1791 and immortalised in the 1984 film Amadeus, it has become the subject of story, symbol and even conspiracy – and one of classical music’s most popular works. Yet it hasn’t been performed in Newcastle for 20 years, partly due to the difficulty of the music for soloists, choir and orchestra.
There’s also the small matter that the great composer died before he could finish it – and the last four movements were added by his somewhat less talented student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
That will all change when Christ Church Camerata performs the Requiem in their final concert of the year on 16 November in Christ Church Cathedral. As well as bringing Mozart’s ethereal harmonies to Newcastle music-lovers for the first time in two decades, they’ll also bring a brand-new version of the ending written by Camerata director and renowned Australian composer David Banney.
Soloists include soprano Marian Moroney, mezzo Anthea Harrington, tenor Phillip Costovski and Nicholas Geddes, bass.
The Festival Chamber Choir and Christ Church Cathedral Choir will join the Camerata strings, expanded to include Mozart’s instrumentation of basset horns, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, timpani and organ, all conducted by Banney.
“It’s an honour – and also a challenge – to write a new version of the ending to the Requiem,” says Banney.
“I’ve examined all of Mozart’s other masses and choral music and made sure I didn’t write anything that breaks the style of his other works, while still creating something fresh and exciting.”
Mozart was commissioned to write the Requiem by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna, who had tragically died at the age of 20 on 14 February 1791. The composer was just 35 years old but had already achieved great success with the many works he is still loved for today: symphonies, operas, chamber music, choral music, and more. Yet he was never financially secure, and until recently, historians believed that he was already quite ill when he began work on the Requiem. This story reached its full dramatic fever in Amadeus, which portrayed his fellow composer Salieri as a conniving rival driving the desperately ill Mozart to complete the Requiem, haunted by premonitions of his own impending death.
That, emphasises Banney and most historians, is exaggeration.
“Mozart may have been under the weather, but his letters from November show him in good spirits,” says Banney, who also happens to be a physician himself.
“He did have health problems throughout his life, from typhoid to pneumonia. Nobody’s quite sure exactly what caused his death, but it was quite likely an infection, possibly streptococcal.
”What’s sure, however, is that the composer died on 5 December 1791, leaving a fully finished Introit, detailed drafts of the Kyrie and Sequence (including the famous dramatic Dies Irae), the Offertory and the first eight bars of the celestial Lacrimosa. The rest was filled in by Süssmayr and is less than inspiring.
“From when I was young, I listened to recordings of the Requiem and always wondered why the last half wasn’t as thrilling as the first,” explains Banney.
“So, when Camerata decided to perform it, I decided it was time for an Australian composer to give it a better finish.”
The all-Mozart concert will also include Mozart’s beloved choral work, Ave Verum, and the slow movement of his Piano Concerto in A major with soloist Christopher Allan. Mozart’s Requiem is generously supported by Create NSW.
WHEN: 2:30pm Sunday 16 November
WHERE: Christ Church Cathedral, Church St, Newcastle
TICKETS: $49.99 adult; $35 concession; $15 school student; $105 family. Discounts for existing subscribers.
