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Las Vegas Philharmonic's entire season!
 Two things made this performance by the Las Vegas Philharmonic seem like attending Mass: first, Mozart's Requiem would fill the hall with the voices of the new Las Vegas Philharmonic Chorus; second, without an intermission, we would all need to visit the restroom before the whole thing started.
The entire program was devoted to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The opening number, the overture from his opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), is considered one of his finest works. Musically, the overture is a fast-moving romp, but its warm, elegant, aristocratic sound is unmistakably Mozart. The piece requires a somewhat stripped-down ensemble with fewer cellists and percussionists, and the first and second violin sections are placed on opposite sides of the stage. The Philharmonic's principal second violinist later remarked to me how strange it feels to hear other instruments from unfamiliar directions. Tympanis provided the only percussion, but instead of playing great rumbling interludes, as is often the case, they play right along with the music in this overture, adding power and keeping the piece sweeping along. Momentum is key to this work. It's a carnival ride at the county fair: fast, fun, and all too soon finished.
Tonight's program was a bit shorter than usual, and instead of an intermission, we were treated to the insights of Dr. Isabelle Emerson, Chair of Music at UNLV and president of the Mozart Society of America. She told a bit of the story surrounding Mozart's Requiem — a story as intriguing as the music itself. Through a mysterious intermediary clad in grey, the composer received a generous commission in 1791 to write a requiem (funeral music) for an anonymous patron. He gladly accepted, but as he worked on the music, he was becoming quite ill, and he eventually told his wife Constanze that he was in fact writing the requiem for himself. His foreboding proved well founded. Some time after his death, Constanze learned the identity of the patron and had to pay him for the right to publish the great work under her husband's name. Click here for more of the story.
As Associate Conductor Richard McGee writes in the program notes, the pairing of these two Mozart pieces is "no accident." Not only were they written simultaneously during the final months before the great composer's death, but their respective moods reflect "both the great happiness and tragic sadness of his life," according to Dr. Emerson. The premiere of The Magic Flute in September 1791 was perhaps the greatest musical success of his life, and The Requiem foresaw his untimely passing.
The work is traditionally sung in the original Latin (hence the comparison to Mass), but we could tell by both the English translation in the program and the tone of the different sections what they were about.
The first movement, itself called "Requiem," bore a solemn yet serene musical message of salvation: "Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them." The second section, "Kyrie," is a bit faster and more celebratory, and reminiscent of Handel's Messiah.
The third movement, "Rex Tremendae," was perhaps my favorite — and not just for the cool name. Starting with solo trombone and the deep voice of bass soloist Carnell Johnson, it soon added the high, clear tenor of soloist Eric Fleischer, then the rich, breathy mezzo soprano of Deborah Muhlenbruck, and finally soprano Kim Barclay Drusedum, music director of the Chorus. The warm trombone passages recalled Mozart's wonderful horn concerti. While not particularly intense, the movement could be described as "theatrical."
The remaining nine movements ranged from content happiness ("I'm on my way to heaven.") to apocalyptic terror ("I just read the Book of Revelations!"). The music featured terrific layering of the different sections of the Chorus, allowing us to hear the singers' voices clearly as they overlapped. It also beautifully blended the soloists with the rest of the Chorus.
 When he died on December 5, 1791, Mozart had completed only the "Requiem" and "Kyrie" movements and sketched out basic structures for the other twelve sections. The piece was finished by several of his pupils, who drew on his earlier works to flesh it out. As I listened I noticed hints from the composer's previous works, but the style of his life's work was otherwise so lighthearted and joyous that I had to keep reminding myself that this solemn music was essentially by Mozart. His Requiem was a real departure for the composer — in more ways than one.
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By Robert LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Classical Music Entertainment Editor. Look for Robert's feature on Classical Music and Whitewater Rafting the Green River later this summer, where members of the Los Angeles Symphony float the rapids with Dvorak Expeditions, with the canyon walls serving as an outdoor amphitheater!
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