Concert Review: The BPO Performs Mozart's 'Requiem'

Sorrow, Glory, And The Thrill Of The Hunt

On Friday, January 17, 2025 The Buffalo Philharmonic performed three works composed from 1783 to 1791, the final eight years of Mozart’s life.

The Coffee Concert began with the Overture to “Don Giovanni,” the timeless story of a narcissistic abuser of women who used his inherited wealth to satisfy his base needs before he is dragged to hell by a pack of angry demons.

French Horn virtuoso Jacek Muzyk then performed Mozart’s Concerto No. 2 in E♭ for horn, followed by Mozart’s famous “Requiem” mass featuring four vocalists and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus.

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Still image from January 17, 2025 performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” at Kleinhans Music Hall. Also pictured are the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, and L-R vocalists Andrea Bickford (soprano), Lynne McMurtry (contralto), Jordan Pitts (tenor), and Valerian Ruminski (bass). photo by the author, © Frank Housh, 2025.

Mozart’s Requiem

Much has been written about Mozart’s composition of the “Requiem,” a Roman Catholic Mass intended to be performed in a sacred space and meant to send a departed soul to heaven.

In September 1791 Mozart was suffering from an extended bout of fever, likely brought on by a case of strep throat (if you are 50 years or older you may wish to consider getting a pneumonia vaccine. It would have likely saved Mozart’s life).

During his illness, Mozart had been engaged in the composition of two operas: The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di Tito. The hard work sapped his strength and certainly made it difficult to for him to fight the bacterial infection.

While the “Requiem” was commissioned by an anonymous figure who planned to take credit for this work that figure was not Salieri, as depicted in Miloš Forman’s 1984 film (above), but rather Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach, a German nobleman.