Mozart! (Like You've Never Heard It Before)

Quick now: What do Franz Kafka, Franz Schubert, Charles Dickens, and Mozart have in common? I mean, besides the fact that all were sublime artistic talents? They all left work unfinished when they passed on. Which, of course, presents far too great a temptation for those who wish to emulate and/or celebrate their genius. In Mozart's case, one of his contemporaries, Franz Süssmayr, completed his incomplete Requiem, and while the finished work was performed for centuries afterward, Mozart must have been tossing and turning in his pauper's grave, as his stated opinion of Süssmayr during life was that Süssmayr couldn't write a decent fugue.

Thank the powers that be for Robert Levin. In 1991, the Harvard professor, musicologist, and composer, at the behest of the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, reworked and made additions to the Requiem. Levin's version has since replaced Süssmayr's in the repertory, and last year, in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth this year, Levin, again working with the IBA and the Carnegie Foundation and the Maria and Robert A. Skirnick Fund for New Works, presented a finished version of Mozart's other great incomplete liturgical composition for orchestra and chorus, the Mass in C Minor, at Carnegie Hall. This week, you can hear this Mass performed by local classical masters Conspirare, in the concert Mozart! (Like You've Never Heard It Before).

"I'm very excited about this concert," says Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare's longtime artistic director. "We have long been performing the Mass in C Minor in an incomplete form. The reason this piece and the Requiem are so widely performed is that the music is so magnificent and beautiful. In completing it, Levin did everything he could to stay as close to whatever musical materials from Mozart were available. For example, there was a sketch of the Crucifixus movement, and Levin finished it based on that sketch. In 1785, Mozart was commissioned to write a psalm for a concert in Vienna, titled 'Davidde penitente.' At that time – I'm sure it was just a practical consideration – when the commission for the psalm came about, Mozart must have thought, 'Well, what's going to be expedient here,' and he arranged for an Italian libretto to be fitted to the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass. Mozart also added two new arias to the setting. Levin has chosen to take these two arias from the psalm setting and set them to Mass texts. So a couple of the movements are actually music that Mozart wrote for the other piece, but Levin just changed the text setting.

"With his completion, Levin has created a compelling work. Being able to experience this work as a liturgical and musical whole is very satisfying. I hope it will find its way into the repertory for many years to come."

The completed Mass will be performed in Austin at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church and in Victoria at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church as part of Conspirare's annual collaboration with the Victoria Bach Festival. Joining them will be more than 20 voices from the Texas State Chorale. Given the two composers, the conductor, and the vocal firepower, Mozart should be blowing out the candles on a very happy birthday indeed.

---

Mozart! (Like You've Never Heard It Before) will be presented Saturday, June 17, 8pm, at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa. For more information, call 476-5775 or visit www.conspirare.org.