Vienna's Mozart Finale
28 November 2006
At 0:55 on December 5, 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna of “severe miliary fever” aged 35. 250 years later the grand finale of Vienna's `Mozart Year 2006' is a series of performances of Mozart’s Requiem on and around the day of the composer's death.

Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral is the venue for a rendition of the Requiem by the Mozart Collegium Wien with alto Annely Peebo, and will end at precisely at 0.55, the moment of the composer's death. It was at St. Stephens in 1782 that Mozart married his wife, Constanze Weber and where, eight years later, his funeral took place.

The State Opera is also to perform the work with a top-calibre line-up: the Vienna Philharmonic will be accompanying Elina Garanca, Genia Kühmeier, Michael Schade and Ain Anger, with Christian Thielemann at the rostrum.

Fabio Luisi will be conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein where Mozart’s Requiem is to be complemented by Symphony No. 1 “Attempt at a Requiem” by German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann, who died on December 5, 1963.

Meanwhile at St. Michael’s Church, Mozart’s final work is being performed by the Capella Archangeli, accompanied by liturgical dance by Zurich’s Annalies Preisig dance company.

Vienna Tourist Office at vienna.info

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