Mozart’s Requiem

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 (Conductor: Masato Suzuki)

Requiem Mass in D Minor, K. 626 (Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki)

Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618 (Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki)

Mozart's Requiem is one of the most commented, performed and fascinating compositions of all time. It has evoked both admiration and controversy, with the composer himself dying in mid-composition. It was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg in summer 1791. Walsegg was an amateur musician who had composers write pieces for him that were later performed at Stuppach Castle as if they were his own. In this case, he wanted a funeral mass in memory of his wife, who had died on February 14 of that year. After Mozart died, at least four different hands intervened to finish it, but it was mainly Franz Xaver Süssmayr, one of his students, who completed it following the instructions of the composer and his widow

The organist and harpsichordist Masaaki Suzuki founded the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 and has been its music director ever since, together with his son Masato Suzuki. The two conductors will share the podium in this concert, with Masato conducting Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and handing the baton over to his father for the Requiem Mass and Ave Verum Corpus.