Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Four-hand Piano version by Carl Czerny)

Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Four-hand Piano version by Carl Czerny) Wessel van Wyk & Willem de Beer combine forces, offering you the first ever performance of this transcription to the Gauteng Public. This recording was made at Brooklyn Theatre Thursday 29 March 2018 on a Steinway & Sons Model D Concert Grand. The four-hand piano arrangement provided a major source of home performance and enjoyment of large-scale compositions all the way through the 19th century. Having unearthed this arrangement of Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626, by the still-feared-by-aspiring-pianists Carl Czerny, Brooklyn Theatre is taking another exciting step towards educating and entertaining our supporters with something as completely unusual as this. This is a nice find for lovers of Romantic pianism, for it is less a transcription than a reinterpretation of Mozart’s Requiem, with much to tell listeners about just how the early 19th century heard Mozart in general. Truly great music holds its own, no matter in which guise. Czerny approaches each movement a bit differently (and he arguably improves the movements completed by Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayr). There are echoes of Beethoven in the big Rex Tremendae and elsewhere, while the Benedictus seems to resemble a song by Schubert or, more likely, one of the lesser lieder composers. The Dies irae gets jaggedly ornamented lines in the pianists’ right hands, with a difficulty suggesting that Czerny might have intended the work for his own use. He was a brilliant pianist who taught Liszt among others. Performances of other Classical-period choral works could easily be modelled on the moods of this piece. The performance took place at Brooklyn Theatre on Sunday 1 April 2018 and was enhanced by projections of visuals, including the English translation of the Requiem. (South African Première) #PianoDuo #TwoPianists #Transcription I. Introitus -Requiem (00:12) II. Kyrie -Kyrie eleison (04:46) III. Sequentia -Dies irae (06:58) -Tuba mirum (08:54) -Rex tremendae (12:13) -Recordare (14:02) -Confutatis (18:30) -Lacrimosa (20:43) IV. Offertorium -Domine Jesu Christe (24:03) -Hostias (27:38) V. Sanctus & Benedictus -Sanctus (31:58) -Benedictus (33:18) VI. Agnus Dei (37:39) VII. Communio -Lux aeterna (40:17)