Bernard Labadie, guest conductor
Liv Redpath, soprano
Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Haji, tenor
Neal Davies, bass-baritone
Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director
FRANZ SCHUBERT Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major
W.A. MOZART Requiem
W.A. MOZART Requiem
We welcome guest conductor Bernard Labadie back to Kansas City in a deeply moving program featuring two cherished masterworks. With his great expertise in music of the Classical era, Labadie leads the orchestra in Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, a work of graceful charm. Light and airy, with frequent harmonic surprises, the Symphony is brightly cheerful and unmistakably reflects Schubert’s deep admiration of Mozart.
Mozart’s Requiem runs the emotional gamut, from tender entreaties and tranquil sonorities to stormy wrath and complex counterpoint. Outstanding vocal soloists will join the Kansas City Symphony Chorus in this awe-inspiring work, left unfinished at Mozart’s untimely death. Completed by Franz Süssmayer, a copyist who assisted Mozart with his last two operas, the Requiem stands as tribute to a genius whose music has endured, touching hearts across the centuries. As Franz Schubert wrote in his diary, “O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!”