Under the direction of Jean-Pierre Berrié, the vocal ensemble Sotto Voce presents Mozart’s fabulous Requiem in an original version for 4 solo voices, 4-voice choir, four-hand piano and timpani, written by Carl Szerny. The musicians of the Tarn-et-Garonne accompany the singers: Mmes Micheline Pinoncely and Virginie Bretagne, pianists of the CRD (departmental radiation conservatory) of Montauban and Benoît Rigoni, percussion teacher. Sotto Voce has invited solo singers from the Occitania region: Delphine Mégret (soprano), Lucile Rentz (middle), Clément Lafranchi (tenor), Raphaël Marbaud (bass).
Is the Requiem really by Mozart?
The story is well known. On 4 December 1791, in the afternoon, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gathered some musician friends to decipher his still unfinished Requiem. From his sick bed, which he has not been able to leave for two weeks, he sings various songs with them and finally the “Lacrimosa” of which only the first eight bars are composed: Lacrimosa dies illa, Giorno di lacrime. At these words Mozart burst into tears and rejected the unfinished score … A few hours later, on the night of December 5th, he died at the age of 35.
Whisper
With its “coralismatic” director, Jean-Pierre Berrié, Sotto Voce is a vocal ensemble with a departmental vocation. It is made up of singers from Tarn-et-Garonne: Castelsarrasin, Moissac, and also Valence-d’Agen, Montech, Maubec, Lizac, Montbeton, Vazerac, Esparsac, Cazals, etc. Most of these singers participate in other choirs. Together known and recognized by now throughout the department, Sotto Voce has sung in recent years: the “German Requiem” by Brahms, pieces by the English composers Stella Natalis by Karl Jenkins; Songs and Magnificat, Solemn Vespers of a Confessor by Mozart, Gloria by Francis Poulenc.
Recently Sotto Voce presented the opera-bouffe of the composer Emmanuel Chabrier “L’Étoile”, the posthumous Requiem by Charles Gounod, Missa di Gloria by Giacomo Puccini, The Singer of Mexico by Francis Lopez. In 2018 Sotto Voce traveled to England at the invitation of the Tiptree Choral Society to sing Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi and a contemporary opera Sunrise Mass by Norwegian Ola Gjeilo.
Saturday 15 October, at 9 pm, at the Saint-Sauveur de Castelsarrasin church, concert “Requiem by WA Mozart”. Information from the municipal music school 05 63 95 01 81; online ticket sales: castelsarrasin.festik.net/requiem-de-mozart/ or at the Maison d’Espagne sales point, music school, harbor master’s office or on the same day at the ticket office (doors open at 20:15).
