The Radio Television of Serbia Choir and Symphony Orchestra, with its chief conductor Srboljub Dinić and soloists soprano Vojka Đorđević, mezzo-soprano Jovana Bulatović, tenor Vanja Biserčić, and bass Miloš Gašić, will on 4th Juli, at the open scene of the Bukovička banja park open the 60th festival “Mermer i zvuci”.
There is certainly no more famous opus ultimum than Mozart’s Requiem. The work gained popularity partly due to the mysterious legend surrounding its creation. But, in addition to imaginative, apocryphal versions about an unknown messenger, wrapped in a gray cloak, who orders Mozart to write a work for an anonymous person, the actual circumstances of the creation of the Requiem are completely trivial and known to everyone.
Working constantly, in a lack of time, already in shaky health, having ahead of him a trip to Prague for the performance of Don Giovanni and the premiere of Tito’s Mercy, commissioned for the royal coronation of Leopold II, as well as the premiere of The Magic Flute in Vienna, Mozart was obsessively overwhelmed by the order to write this work, which, due to frequent fever nightmares, instinctively foreboding the end, he called his death song. He put 1792 on the header of the Requiem score as the date of completion of the composition, hoping to finalize it by then. But he didn’t succeed. He died on December 5, 1791. He completely completed the Introitus and Kyrie movements, as well as the vocal parts and continuos for the sequences: Dies Irae, Tuba Mirum, Rex tremendae, Recordare, and Lacrimosa, with an indication of the orchestration and sketches of the final section of the Requiem. The work was completed by his student Zismajer on the order of Mozart’s widow Konstanz, who thereby ensured the payment of the order.
Although the mystery of the author of the work has been solved today, the mystique that it carried with it gave it the stamp of eternity. Although it is a Requiem, this is one of the most popular pieces of music history in general!