Orange County Choral Academy Venite

Kethleen Gremillion, conductor

Ave Verum Corpus

Wir eilen met schwachen

Central High School Vivace Chamber Choir

Ben Shafer, conductor

The Last Words of David

Tenebrae Factae Sunt / O Bone Jesu

St. Thomas The Apostle Catholic Church Parish Choir

Greg Hebert, conductor

The Wisdom of God

Jesu Dulcis Memoria

Dominus Vobiscum

Southern California Master Chorale

Brian Dehn, conductor

Annua Gaudia

I obey thee, O Lord (Lacrimosa) from Da Vinci Requiem

Os Justi

Orchestra

Amadeus Piano Concerto (World Premiere)

Requiem Mass in D Minor, K, 626

This concert is a continuation of the vision Greg Hebert and I had over a decade ago. How, in just one day, can a high school and a church choir come together and create beautiful music? As this is now our 7th collaboration, we’d say it is going very well! Now sponsored under my tenure with the Southern California Master Chorale, and though he has retired from teaching, we still are working to continue the vision. He brings his own church choir now, we have a new high school from Arizona joining us, another new youth choir program from right here in Orange County, and are still graciously hosted by the amazing faith community of St. Boniface Catholic Church. This project is a beautiful testament to collaboration, to friendship, and a unique dedication to music and its ability to bring people of all ages and experiences together. Presenting classical choral orchestral masterworks is a rare and beautiful experience. We are all very excited to share it with you.

Tonight is also a WORLD PREMIERE of a piano concerto based on tonight’s centerpiece, the Mozart Requiem. Caleb Lawrence Dehn is currently a senior at the University of Southern California. In May, he will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, and minor in Healthcare Studies. In the Fall, Caleb will start as a first-year medical student in Chicago at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University. He loves to both play piano and compose, and will continue pursuing his passion for music in medical school. Of his piano concerto, Caleb says,

“The Mozart Requiem is one of my favorite pieces of music, and it has been an absolute joy to use it as inspiration for my piano concerto. I combined themes from the Introit, Confutatis, Lacrimosa, and Domine Jesu with a main theme from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major to create something that honors Mozart through my own compositional style and voice.

The opening four measures, as you’ll hopefully recognize, is based on the beginning of the Requiem, but in a different key and meter. Immediately following this, the solo piano introduces a variation on a theme from Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto harmonized by figures based on the Lacrimosa.

My choice for the second theme is based on the choral melodies of the Domine Jesu. Throughout the concerto, I give the piano a rhythmic figure similar to that of the Confutatis, but in a much different mood due to the key and meter. After playing with these themes for a while, I segway into an even 4/4 meter and modulate into the key of the Requiem, D minor, so I can quote Mozart note-for-note. For just a few measures, the notes and rhythms are exactly the same as in the Domine Jesu, while the piano plays the choral parts.

Solo piano then plays a short and exciting transition using the harmony of the Lacrimosa but the rhythmic figure of the Confutatis. The orchestra then plays, note-for-note, two (hopefully very recognizable) measures of the Lacrimosa. A fiery cadenza follows this with all themes at once before the orchestra bursts in with the recapitulation.

I based most of the architeture of this work on the “classical” sonata-form piano concerto, but I wanted to add an ending that stylistically sounded less like Mozart and more like myself. The harmony starts sweet and simple with just the strings until the entire orchestra comes in one by one to create a grand moment where every musician on stage is playing (even the trumpets, who have been counting very well in silence up until this point.) The harmony repeats but gets less and less complex as parts drop out, until finally, we end with just the strings and piano. While the ending portrays different emotions than the beginning of the Mozart Requiem, the instrumentation and texture is intentionally similar to the Introit to create an aural cohesion when the Requiem follows.

It is an honor to celebrate the Southern California Master Chorale with this piece. Thank you for coming to the concert this evening, and I hope you enjoy my latest composition, Amadeus Concerto.”

The Mozart Requiem stands as a masterpiece in the choral/orchestral repertoire. What many may not realize is that only about half of this work was composed by Mozart himself—a fact overshadowed by the dramatic and now famous circumstances surrounding its inception and completion. The film Amadeus popularized some aspects of its story, though it took dramatic liberties. The true history of this remarkable composition is no less intriguing.

In 1791, the final year of his tragically short life, a 35-year-old Mozart accepted a commission for a Requiem Mass from an enigmatic stranger. Despite his precarious health and financial struggles, the offer—equivalent to three months’ salary—was too significant to decline. For years, the identity of the commissioner remained a mystery. We now know he was Johann Nepomuk Sortschan, representing Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach, who wanted to memorialize his late wife. The Count, a musician himself, was drawn to Mozart’s renowned talents, despite the composer’s distance from the musical elite, largely due to his eccentricities.

The Count’s agent made unannounced visits, demanding updates and copies of the score as proof of progress. Constanze, Mozart’s wife, was anxious for him to complete the work since part of the payment had been advanced. She feared they would have to return the money if the Requiem remained unfinished. Amidst this pressure, Mozart’s superstitions and premonitions of his own demise fueled a frenzied yet profound musical expression of his life and impending death. He utilized every resource available, primarily enlisting his students to assist in secrecy.

Mozart died before he could finish the Requiem. However, the commission had been fully paid, and the work needed to be delivered. While it is clear which parts Mozart authored, the extent of his students’ contributions—whether as scribes to his dictations or as composers themselves—remains partially unknown. Ultimately, Franz Süssmayr, regarded as a less-than-ideal choice by some, was tasked with completing the Requiem. Indeed, he was Constanze’s third choice. Yet, despite criticism of his efforts as “inadequate,” Süssmayr’s close study with Mozart during the composer’s final year likely made him the best-prepared to interpret and finalize the Requiem in accordance with Mozart’s vision.

Only the first movement, the Kyrie, is entirely penned by Mozart. The subsequent movements contain sketches and partial ideas, such as the trombone solo in the Tuba Mirum, the intensity of the Dies Irae, and the driving bass of the Confutatis. The vocal lines for many of the movements were fully composed, but there were only indications for the orchestral parts. The Lacrimosa, the seventh movement, holds a particularly enigmatic place in the Requiem, with Mozart completing only the first eight bars before his death—these were the last bars of music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ever wrote. You will notice a dramatic crescendo in tonight’s performance. We feel it is appropriate.

Constanze managed to delay the delivery of what was promised as Mozart’s last completed work by nearly a year—a significant achievement under the circumstances. She retained a copy for herself but ultimately delivered the score to Count Walsegg, fulfilling the secret agreement. Whether the Requiem was ever performed under the guise of being composed by Count Walsegg remains unknown. What is indisputable, over three centuries later, is the profound impact of Mozart’s Requiem. It encapsulates the essence of drama, passion, and the existential reflection on death with unparalleled genius. While incomplete, what we perform tonight remains a testament to Mozart’s enduring brilliance.