All Mozart, All Evening

DANBURY — Danbury Music Centre invites the public to enjoy an all-Mozart performance of the 75-voice Danbury Concert Chorus and the 50-piece Danbury Symphony Orchestra. Ariel Rudiakov, music director of Danbury Symphony Orchestra, will conduct the performance, which will includes the Requiem in D minor, KV 626; Missa Brevis in F Major, KV 192; and the Overture to the opera Don Giovanni, KV 527.

Richard Price, music director of Danbury Concert Chorus, has prepared the chorus for this performance and will sing in the bass section. The concert will take place Saturday, May 10, at 8 pm, at St James Church on West Street.

The Requiem was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final composition. Mozart lived from 1756 to 1791 and, after his death, his widow, Constanz, arranged for Franz Xaver Sussmayr, Mozart’s colleague, to complete the work. Exactly how much of the Requiem is Mozart’s and how much was completed by his colleague has long been in dispute.

In addition to Mozart’s final composition, the chorus and orchestra will perform the Missa Brevis, an early work written in 1774 when Mozart was 18 years old. Musicologists have long noted that Mozart’s famous four-note motive used recurrently in the Jupiter Symphony was first heard as the opening four notes of the Credo in the Missa Brevis.

Don Giovanni, perhaps the composer’s most popular opera, was completed long before he wrote its overture. Reportedly, he wrote the overture in the early hours of the morning, in just enough time for his copyist to hand the parts to the orchestra to sight read at the premiere performance.

Joining the chorus and orchestra will be soloists Kerry Ryer-Parke, soprano; Kirsten Sollek, mezzo-soprano; James Ruff, tenor; and Keith Kibler, bass.

Admission is free, but donations will be gratefully accepted at the door. For additional information, call Danbury Music Centre at 748-1716 or send e-mail to DMC1935@snet.net.