The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) and Cape Town Opera (CTO), South Africa’s most celebrated arts companies, are again collaborating on an iconic work, the Requiem by Mozart. They will present this in the Toringkerk in Paarl on Easter Saturday, 30 March, at 16:00.
Bernhard Gueller, the CPO’s principal guest conductor, will direct the orchestra and CTO soloists Siphamandla Moyake (soprano) and Judith Neilson Young Artists Julia Portela Piñón (alto), Mongezi Mosoaka (tenor) and Lonwabo Mose (bass baritone) with two choirs.
Cape Town Opera’s Chorus is under the leadership of Chorus Master Marvin Kernelle. The concert will also include the Symphony Choir of Cape Town, trained by Levi Alexander.
For Gueller this is the most mysterious Requiem ever written and was the composer’s last work before his death at 35.
“It covers the spectrum of emotion from subtlety to high drama. Mozart never completed it, but he left sketches so that Sussmeyer was able to complete a work that has become the pinnacle of Mozart’s oeuvre.”
The third Easter collaboration in Paarl between the two companies is part of the goal of both organisations to take outstanding music and performers to as wide an audience as possible.
Says Louis Heyneman, CEO of the CPO, “our recent annual chamber music festival in Franschhoek and the concerts in the Toringkerk have become part of the social calendar and we are delighted once more to be able to present this major work to a discerning audience.”
CTO’s artistic director Magdalene Minnaar agrees.
“The writing for voice in this Requiem is absolutely sublime. It is one of the most coveted oratorios for singers for it contains some of the most riveting vocal writing for both solo and ensemble. The quartets are particularly genial in the layering of vocal lines. It is one of my personal favourites to perform myself.”
Tickets are R260 (children under six are free) and are available from Artscape Dial-A-Seat on 02 421 7695 and Webtickets.
