NSO: McKay, Pärt, Mozart

National Symphony Orchestra
David Brophy conductor
Aoife Miskelly soprano
Gemma Ní Bhriain mezzo-soprano
Robin Tritschler tenor
Milan Siljanov bass-baritone 
National Symphony Chorus
David Young choral director
 
Deirdre McKay New work [World Premiere] NSO commission.
Arvo Pärt Berliner Messe 
Mozart Requiem

Two sides of the same spiritual coin celebrate faith and anticipate death.

Arvo Pärt’s Berlin Mass is a luminous expression of joy written in response to the re-claiming of religious freedoms following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mozart’s Requiem is the most personal and rousing of declarations of a composer contemplating his own end.

Be the first to hear a new work by Deirdre McKay, ‘exceptionally imaginative in the sound world she creates’ (Irish Examiner).

Did you know?

Arvo Pärt was a prolific composer of film soundtracks before developing the style that came to be called ‘holy minimalism’.

Mozart’s Requiem was commissioned by an ‘unknown, grey stranger’ who insisted on anonymity.

Believing he had been cursed, Mozart was convinced his last work, left uncompleted at his death. was a Requiem for himself.

Robert Levin's completion is based on the first attempt by Mozart’s pupil, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and changed, he says, "as little as possible, so as not to disturb the weight of the centuries".

Listen out for…

Pärt’s signature tintinnabuli (ringing) style in his Mass, heard in various incarnations from serenely reverent duets to glowing declarations of faith from full chorus.

The ominous voices of slicing strings, baleful brass and lowering voices that set the tone for Mozart’s dark-hued Requiem.

The molten quality of the ‘Dies Irae’, forlorn trombone in the ‘Tuba mirum’, the clash between the consoling gentleness of the ‘Recordare’ and fear and fury of ‘Confutatis’, the aching vulnerability of the ‘Lachrymosa’, and glowing affirmation of faith in the concluding ‘Lux aeterna’.

Presented by NCH