Sydney Chamber Choir leaves audience spellbound

Sydney Chamber Choir | Mozart’s Reqiuem

April 28, 2024, City Recital Hall, Sydney, NSW

The question is often asked, ‘What marvellous music would we have heard from Mozart if he had lived to a ripe old age?’ Of course, there is clear evidence that he knew he was dying and it is no coincidence that, like Schubert after him, he composed many of his best works in his final year of life. It is however a tragedy that if he had access to modern medicines, one blood pressure tablet a day would probably have prolonged his life by forty years.

I feel sure however that he would only have composed one Requiem, as this is a magnificent stand alone work incorporating all of Mozart’s flair and ingenuity, yet it was written under great pressure as he also had timeline commissions for two operas, The Magic Flute and Clemenza Di Tito, and a clarinet concerto. It’s uncertain as to how much of the music was composed later by Franz Xaver Süssmayr – I feel very little, judging by the brilliance of the proposed episodes, but Süssmayr did help in the classification of the work.

Sydney Chamber Choir was formed in 1975 and has progressed in leaps and bounds. Sam Allchurch now directs and conducts and is a promoter of modern Australian composers. He, combined with the choir, the Muffat Collective orchestra and the four soloists gave a riveting account of the Requiem with not a beat or note out of place, and accented by the great acoustics of the City Recital Hall. The audience was spellbound.

L – R: Celeste Lazarenko, Helen Sherman

Soprano Celeste Lazarenko, a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has sung in several operas including Don Giovanni and Siegfried for Opera Australia. Mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman is also Australian but has spent much of her career in Europe where she has played roles in operas as diverse as Der Rosenkavalier and Cosi Fan Tutte. Richard Butler, tenor, was born and educated in England and is particularly devoted to church music such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion and the Monteverdi Vespers. David Greco, bass, is well-known for his recordings of Schubert songs and has recently recorded Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise with Australian early piano expert Erin Helyard.

L – R: Richard Butler, David Greco

The Requiem was preceded by three works, a Bach Motet, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Iain Grandage’s Why do we Exist?. This latter piece started with Sculthorpian bird trills and produced a serene atmosphere which was very attractive but all too short. Iain has won several awards and deservedly so.

The orchestra, under the leadership of clockwork effervescent Matthew Greco, rose to the occasion and a special word must be said for trombonist Nigel Crocker who handled the difficult introduction to Tuba Mirum faultlessly!

Sam Allchurch – conductor, The Muffat Collective

Photo credits: Robert Catto