Bock auf Klassik?!
Program
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sinfonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
1788Requiem d-Moll KV 626
1791
Cast
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Christina Landshamer
soprano
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Lara Morger
mezzo-soprano
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Sebastian Kohlhepp
tenor
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Krešimir Stražanac
bass-baritone
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Amsterdam Baroque Choir
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Ton Koopman
conductor
Dates
A classical concert for young adults – with no dress code, but with everything that makes for a special evening.
With its concert series »Bock auf Klassik?!«, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne invites everyone under the age of 29 to an evening that offers a fresh take on classical music: accessible, lively and surprisingly different. For just 8 euros, you can look forward to great works, a personal introduction to the evening’s programme, and afterwards a musical finale with a DJ, free drinks and a relaxed atmosphere in the foyer.
Who was the mysterious »grey messenger« who commissioned a Requiem from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791 on behalf of an anonymous client? An emissary of dark forces? Or even Death itself, knocking at Mozart’s door? All manner of myths surround the creation of his Requiem. For it is indeed eerie that the composer himself, in the very midst of working on this funeral mass, was torn from life completely unexpectedly at the age of 35, leaving it behind as a fragment.
Eventually, the truth came to light. The commission was far less mysterious than the legend would have us believe: a wealthy impostor had taken the audacious liberty of commissioning a masterpiece from the superstar Mozart, only to pass it off as his own work. Audacity – and at the same time one of the greatest strokes of luck in music history: for without this trickery, Mozart’s Requiem might not exist, that truly otherworldly stroke of genius which touches the world and makes it a little better.
Ton Koopman, grand seigneur of historical performance practice, returns as a guest conductor with the Gürzenich Orchestra, juxtaposing Mozart’s Requiem with his late Symphony K. 550. The Amsterdam Baroque Choir and a select quartet of soloists open the heavens.
