Mozart Requiem

From Darkness to Light

True Concord choir, orchestra and soloists

Friday, March 29, 2019, 7:00 PM
Valley Presbyterian Church, Green Valley

Saturday, March 30, 2019, 7:30 PM
Catalina Foothills High School

Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3:00 PM
Catalina United Methodist Church

Heartbreaking Beauty – Radiant Sound

As the story goes, Mozart was approached by a mysterious messenger from an anonymous source, commissioning him to write a Requiem Mass. During the decline of Mozart’s own health, composing that work took on great personal significance. Facing questions about death and mortality, Mozart wrote “I fear I am writing a requiem for myself.”

The resulting work reveals terror and repentance balanced with an intimate tenderness – a musical expression of grief.

In fact, Mozart was working on the uncompleted work on the last day of his life. He died after composing eight bars of the Requiem’sLacrimosa,” the last words he set to music marking “that day of tears and mourning…”

In contrast to the somber grandeur of the Mozart is the luminous Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) by Morten Lauridsen. Written in response to his mothers’ death, Lauridsen turned his grief into radiant sound. The work includes five movements, each blending into the next, based on references to light from sacred Latin texts.

Morten Lauridsen, “the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic,” is the most performed American composer of choral works. The five-time Grammy nominated composer, named “American Choral Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts and 2007 National Medal of the Arts recipient, will be in residence with True Concord the week of the performances.

As if traveling in rays of light, the listener is lifted by the voices and orchestra. These performances ask the ultimate question, and offer a shining answer.

“As I tell audiences, every single time this piece is done, if you can get to that deep, personal space, it’s almost like a meditation, where you can reflect on those things that are important to you, that bring light into your life.”

-Morten Lauridsen, composer

“Heaven sounds like this.”

– Anonymous

Morten Lauridsen

“Breathtakingly, life-changingly beautiful”

-David Ruhf, Bach Choir of Bethlehem