Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Nelson Mass | Durham Choral Society

Durham Choral Society and Leeds Philharmonic Chorus invite you to a joint concert where they will perform the ever-popular Mozart Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass, also known as 'Mass for Troubled Times'. Singing in Durham Cathedral goes back a thousand years; this concert continues the tradition of glorious choral music in Durham Choral Society’s 60th season.

Mozart started his Requiem Mass in 1791 but it was unfinished at the time of his death in December that year. It was completed by Franz Xaver Sussmayr and first performed in February 1792. Mozart's wife, Constanze, claimed that he came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral as well as for Count von Welsegg, who had commissioned it.

A Mass for Troubled times (Missa in Angustiis) is one of fourteen masses written by Joseph Haydn, and one of six masses written for the Esterhazy family at the time Napoleon was causing turmoil in Europe. It became known as the Nelson Mass because on the day it was first performed, Admiral Nelson dealt Napoleon a stunning defeat in the Battle of The Nile.