Mozart's Mass in C minor | Highgate Choral Society

Works written for two very different occasions form the opening concert in Highgate Choral Society's 2017-2018 season. Following the recovery from illness of his fiancee, Constanze Weber, Mozart promised to write a mass of thanksgiving. Although it was never completed the Mass in C minor was premiered, in its incomplete state, with Constanze as one of the soprano soloists, in Salzburg on 26th October 1783 and harks back to the Baroque world of Handel and Bach.

Originally commissioned by the Polish-born art collector Bronislaw Krystall to write a requiem commemorating his wife's death, Karol Szymanowski decided to change the contract and instead composed what is considered to be his greatest masterpiece. The inspiration for his Stabat Mater was the tragic death of his niece, Alinka and the subsequent suffering of his pregnant sister, who was soon to lose another child. Completed in 1926, Stabat Mater is of fundamental importance in the history of Polish music after Chopin.