Erin Helyard conducts a musical tribute to the myth of Mozart, from child prodigy to Classical heavyweight.

This program spotlights one of the great myths in the Western musical canon: Mozart himself. The legend of this Classical giant has persisted for close to 300 years, his staggering creative output on repeat in concert halls, practice rooms and popular culture all over the world.

We start at the beginning, with the Divertimento from Mozart’s First Symphony, penned at just eight years of age. The legacy of this brilliant early work lives on, from the little plaque outside the house in Westminster where it was written, to musical echoes in Mozart’s later works.

Australian composer Dr Corinna Bonshek offers us a reflective palette cleanser in Dreams of the Earth. The headiness of summer cicada song and the beauty of birds in flight are juxtaposed with unease in the face of a changing climate, stirring up – in the composer’s words – ‘hope, suffering and love’.

We return to Mozart grown; a creative master labouring over an anonymous commission, left unfinished when he died at just 35 years of age. Like Tchaikovsky’s Sixth, this final work remains shrouded in mystery – only deepened by the uncertainty as to which sections were Mozart’s own and which belong to his student, Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who completed the piece.

Requiem itself is rich in meaning and mystery. Born of the Catholic liturgy, it was shaped over centuries into a sophisticated, large-scale art form, capable of holding both deep sorrow and bright, eternal hope.

Artists
Erin Helyard Conductor
Sara Macliver Soprano
Ashlyn Tymms Alto
Louis Hurley Tenor
Christopher Richardson Bass Baritone
CSO Chorus
Canberra Symphony Orchestra

Repertoire
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Divertimento in D major, K. 136 ‘Salzburg Symphony No. 1’
CORRINA BONSHEK Dreams of the Earth I
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Requiem in D minor, K. 626