Whitehall Choir will present two wonderfully atmospheric works for Maundy Thursday, 2 April (19.30), at St John’s Smith Square: Schubert’s rarely heard, Stabat Mater and Mozart’s great unfinished C Minor Mass. The choir’s Musical Director, Paul Spicer conducts the concert, with sopranos Emily Garland and Anna Sideris, tenor Ørjan Hinna and baritone Nicholas Mogg.
The ‘Great Mass in C minor’ was Mozart’s last setting of the Mass, apart from the Requiem composed in 1791, the year of his death. Many prefer this piece to his Requiem. The Mass in C minor, which is incomplete, is scored for four soloists (two sopranos, tenor and bass), chorus (in some movements a double chorus), and large orchestra. In a letter to his father Leopold dated 4 January 1783, Mozart mentioned a vow he had made to write a Mass to celebrate the occasion of his bringing his then fiancée Constanze to Salzburg as his wife; and Constanze sang the very beautiful ‘Et incarnatus est’ at the première, which took place in Salzburg on 26 October 1783.
As a composer of songs, Schubert has no equal in fertility of melodic invention. His Stabat Mater has twelve movements which include two fine fugues, and it contains some of the best and most beautiful choral writing of the period.