Classical Stardom
Mayfield Festival Choir and Ripieno Players perform Mozart and Haydn.
Mayfield Festival Choir and the Ripieno Players directed by Jeremy Summerly
Soloists:
Sofia Kirwan-Baez
Lexie Moon
Francis Melvill
Ed Birchinall
Mozart: Requiem
Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate
Haydn: ‘Little Organ’ Mass
Mozart’s iconic Requiem is justly famous. Not only does it contain some of Mozart’s most scintillating music, but it was left unfinished at Mozart’s early death at the age of 35. Why and for whom the Requiem was written remain the subject of debate and speculation. In this performance by Mayfield Festival Choir, conducted by Jeremy Summerly (in the completion by Mozart’s younger contemporary Franz Süssmayr), the brilliant Ripieno Players and young vocal scholars from the Royal College of Music are joined by starry Soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez, all of whom have become regular features of music-making in Mayfield. Sofia’s ravishing tone and dramatic approach will shine not only in Mozart’s Requiem, but also in Exsultate, jubilate, a glittering virtuoso motet written in Italy when Mozart was killing time at the end of an operatic run in Milan; if you were a teenager in 1773 – and in the anachronistic absence of TikTok – you presumably needed something to while away the hours while you were waiting for the evening performances of your most recent opera.
Mozart’s dazzling music is heard alongside that of Haydn, the other star of Classical-era composition. Haydn’s ‘Little Organ’ Mass is a sparkling miniature designed to entertain as much as to provide music for church worship. The name ‘Little Organ’ Mass is a reference to the glittering Benedictus, where the organ comes to the fore (here played by Andrew Benians) to accompany Soprano soloist, Diva Kirwan-Baez. Join the Mayfield Stars on May the Fourth.
