A cheerful, operatic requiem as the choir’s last concert

The vocal ensemble Messa di Voce celebrated its 20th birthday, and at the same time its end, on Saturday in the St. Oswald's church in Zug. The Requiem pro Defunctis by Domenico Cimarosa was a perfect fit for this musical farewell.

The music that sounded in the church of St. Oswald on Saturday evening was simply so beautiful that one forgot again and again that it had been dedicated – as a requiem – to a dead woman. Around the altar stood and sat the more than 20 singers of the Zug vocal ensemble Messa di Voce, together with a baroque chamber music formation with young musicians, including two hunting horn players, together with cellist Jakob Herzog, organist Taichi Karakawa and vocal soloists Elisabeth Germann (soprano), Susanne Wiesner (alto), Zacharie Fogal (tenor) and Stefan Vock (bass). The requiem was conducted by Manuela Hager.

With a detailed introduction, Hager prepared the audience for the concert. Its creator Domenico Cimarosa, who lived in Italy but was appointed to the court of Empress Catherine II in St. Petersburg in 1787, and to the Viennese imperial court as the successor of Antonio Salieri from 1791, is primarily known as the composer of numerous opera buffa works.

Manuela Hager conducts her last concert of Messa di Voce in the church of St. Oswald.                    Photo: Roger Zbinden

The Requiem was commissioned by the Russian court after the death of the wife of the French Ambassador in St. Petersburg in 1787. The fact that Cimarosa drew on his experience of opera in this context was also evident in the Requiem in G minor at every turn in the concert: it contains colourful operatic passages, and the texts of the classical Mass for the Dead are underpinned by a musical language that is almost scenic.

Acknowledged with standing ovation
The interpretation consistently followed this theatrical "Introitus", with artistic pauses in the "Kyrie", which seemed like moments of breathing, and with a dramatically surging shudder in the expectation of the Last Judgement in "Dies irae". Soon with angelic pure soprano or tender alto passages in the “Recordare”, with the energetic bass in the “Inter oves” and the elongated first note of the “Preces meae” produced like a trombone by the tenor, with the cheerful dialogue between the choir and the individual voices in “Domine Jesu”, the string voices that cheer again and again or the luminous forest sounds of the horns.

The audience gave a standing ovation to the worldly-heavenly beauty of this farewell concert.