Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. (1756–1791) & Gluck, Cristoph Willibald. (1714–1787)
Messe de Requiem par Mozart
A Paris: A L'Imprimerie du Conservatoire Faubourg Poissonniere No. 152. [1805]. Messe De Requiem Par Mozart. Exécutée pour la première fois à Paris par le Conservatoire de Musique le 30 Frimaire An 13 [21 décembre 1804]. Cet ouvrage est précédé d un extrait de la vie de l'Auteur [par Charles-Louis de Sevelinges]. Early French edition of Mozart's final opus, which was performed for the first time in Paris in 1804, bound together with: De Profundis. Musique de Gluck. Ouvrage Posthume Gravé sur le Manuscrit Original de l'Auteur (Paris: Faubourg, [1805]). 138; 15 pp. Full score with Süßmayr's completion. Engraved throughout. Stamped on both title pages by music dealer [Étienne] Ozi. Hardcover, later brown boards with gold lettering to spine. Some light corner wear and small loss to head of spine (with this fragment present.) Overall fine. 13.5 x 10 inches (34.3 x 25.3 cm). Hirsch IV, 877. WorldCat records only three copies.Mozart's Requiem remains one of his best-loved works, not little because of the mythology surrounding it. Mozart left it unfinished when he died in December 1791. The completion by Franz Xaver Süßmayr, made in order to fulfill the Count von Walsegg's commission of the piece, is still generally the completion performed today, although several modern musicologists have offered alternative completions. The first French performance took place in Paris in 1804 (with the present title page giving the date of 30 Frimaire An 13 in the French Revolutionary calendar).
Gluck's De Profundis is a short setting of Psalm 130 for SATB choir and small orchestra with an unusual and low instrumentation (oboe, viola, horn, three trombones, cello, and continuo.) The work was first performed at Gluck's own funeral in November 1787, conducted by none other than Antonio Salieri. The use of trombones with the associations of death and the afterlife make it a fitting pairing with Mozart's Requiem. (18110)
Printed Music Classical Music