The St. Cecilia Choir, the choral ensemble Cantiamo, the Incarnation Orchestra and soloists will sing Michael Haydn’s beautiful Requiem on Good Friday evening, March 21 at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of the Incarnation. Santa Rosa Symphony Conductor Emeritus Corrick Brown joins us as guest conductor with soloists Carol Menke, soprano, Lynda Higson, mezzo-soprano, Jos Milton, tenor, and Tom Hart, baritone.

$15 general admission

(A limited number of tickets available only at the door, the evening of the concert)

Friday, March 21, 2008 at 8 PM

Church of the Incarnation    Directions

Michael Haydn wrote the Requiem in C Minor, MH 154 for his beloved patron the Archbishop Siegmund, who died in Salzburg in 1771. During the second half of the 18th century Michael Haydn was just as highly regarded as a composer as was his elder brother Franz Joseph Haydn or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and during the `19th century his sacred music in particular also enjoyed the greatest popularity. Parts of the Requiem were performed at the composer’s own funeral service, and the whole work was presented at the requiem mass for Franz Joseph Haydn in Vienna in 1809. It is scored for two clarino trumpets, two trumpets, timpani and strings. The unusually rich trumpet contingent is to be explained by the instrumental resources of the Salzburg court ensemble at the time. Another special feature of the Requiem is the citing of Gregorian chant melodies in the introit at “Te decet hymnus” and in the Benedictus. Mozart would have been thoroughly familiar with Haydn’s Requiem and may have drawn inspiration for his own Requiem to be written twenty years later.

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