Requiem, K. 626
Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339
Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618
Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
London Mozart Players
William Vann conductor
The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is one of the finest professional church choirs in the UK. Its members regularly sing with many of the world’s leading consort groups, such as The Sixteen, Tallis Scholars, Stile Antico and Monteverdi Choir and also work in the fields of opera, conducting, teaching and music journalism.
Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor is undoubtedly the most famous of all unfinished musical compositions: composed in Vienna in 1791, the work was only partially complete when Mozart died of a fever on 5 December. It was completed the following year by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, in order to fulfil the original commission by Count Franz von Walsegg, an amateur chamber musician who routinely commissioned works by composers and passed them off as his own!
Mozart’s final work for Salzburg Cathedral, in 1780, was a setting of the texts for vespers, intended for liturgical use. The highlight, perhaps, is the wonderful soprano solo Laudate Dominum. We also hear his impeccable and renowned setting of Ave Verum Corpus, thoroughly appropriate for performance alongside the Requiem.
‘First-class personnel… it’s the tension and subtlety in the performances that catch the ear’ (Gramophone)
‘… model singing from the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea under the meticulous direction of William Vann’ (The Observer)