Ripon College ensembles perform works by Mozart, Faure

The Ripon College Orchestra, under the direction of Professor Kyle Szabo, will perform at 3:15 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts on the Ripon College campus.

The performance is free and open to the public.

The orchestra will perform Mozart’s Symphony No. 38,”Prague” and Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem” with the Ripon College Choral Union, under the direction of Professor Seong-Kyung Graham.

Although Mozart’s reputation in Vienna had its ups and downs, he was consistently loved in the city of Prague. The opera “The Marriage of Figaro” was such a success there that Mozart dedicated a symphony to the city. The “Prague” symphony is dramatically charged from start to finish, and even borrows a theme from “Figaro” in the final movement.

Faure composed a “Requiem” in 1888, possibly as a result of his father’s death. The work differs from other popular Requiem masses through the century, which focused on the dramatic contrast of death, judgment and forgiveness. Faure omits much of the sequence, opting instead for a peaceful and, at times, uplifting setting of the Requiem. The work underwent several revisions that are all performed regularly. The version written in 1900 was completed in response to publisher demands for more instruments — in particular, violins — to be included.

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