Sunday 6 December 2015 St Machar's Cathedral 7:45 p.m.

Mozart: Requiem; Solemn Vespers

Aberdeen Bach Choir
Musical Director Peter Parfitt

Aberdeen Sinfonietta
Leader Bryan Dargie

Eilidh McEwan Soprano

Phillipa Thomas Mezzo Soprano

Thomas Kinch Tenor

Stefan Berkieta Bass

Aberdeen Bach Choir under the baton of Musical Director Peter Parfitt performed Mozart’s two greatest sacred choral works at 7:45 in St Machar’s Cathedral on Sunday December 6th 2015. There was a fine quartet of soloists backed up by Aberdeen Sinfonietta.

The Requiem, alternately serene and turbulent, was composed in 1791, the year of Mozart’s death, but left unfinished. It was the result of a conspiratorial anonymous commission, which has been generating controversy ever since.

The Solemn Vespers, settings of eventide psalms and a Magnificat, is an earlier and more majestic work, composed while Mozart was still in Salzburg. It was written to please his employer, Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, with whom Mozart eventually had an irretrievable falling out.

The performance attracted a large audience, selling out in advance.