presents… Laudate: Mozart’s
Sacred and Symphonic Works
Thursday, 12 June 2025
Herringham A, Founder’s Building, Royal Holloway University of London
Featuring Harvey Lok Conductor
Hilary Kwan Soprano
Lingling Bao-Smith Soprano / 1st Violin
Nicole Yuen 1st Violin
Christopher Bacon 2nd Violin
Phedra Low 2nd Violin
Terry Chen Viola
Maisie Pearce Viola
Oliver Grimes Cello
Gwendolyn Schneider Flute
Klara Sweeney Flute
Luke Passmore Bassoon
Josephine Palmer Horn
Estimated finish time: 6.40pm
There will be no interval during this event.
Please no flash photography or visual/audio recording throughout the event.
For news about our future events, please visit royalholloway.ac.uk/music/events
EVENT PROGRAMME
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (17561791)
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
1. Molto Allegro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Coronation Mass in C major, K. 317
5. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339
5. ‘Laudate Dominum’ (Psalm 117)
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
Laudate eum, omnes populi
Quoniam confirmata est Super nos misericordia eius, Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Praise the Lord, all nations; Praise Him, all people. For He has bestowed His mercy upon us, And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever, and for generations of generations. Amen.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201
1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Menuetto: Allegretto-Trio
4. Allegro con spirito
K. 183 and K. 201, the symphonies written by the 18-year-old Mozart in Salzburg after returning in the fall of 1773 from a trip to Viennawith his father, are easily his finest to that time in terms of expressivity and formal mastery. The ostensible purpose of the trip was social, a visit with an old family friend, Anton Mesmer – the physician noted, and notorious, for his practice of what came to be called “mesmerism”; to keep it simple, since this is not an article about him, let’s equate it
with “hypnotism” (as a treatment for hysteria) – and his cousin Joseph Conrad Mesmer, director of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral School. The latter’s admiration for the young composer was great, and he offered Wolfgang admission to the school, with all expenses paid. One wonders what Mesmer thought the young man could be taught.
It can be assumed that the real reason for the Viennese sojourn was to find employment for the teenager. As such, it was a failure, but in the Imperial capital Wolfgang’s horizons were expanded by exposure to important new music, including the six Op. 20 quartets and the latest “Sturm und Drang” symphonies by his friend and idol, Joseph Haydn.
The Symphony in A was completed the followingApril. It begins softly in the strings, with an octave drop, the theme subsequently repeated in skipping octaves as the oboes and horns join in. The second theme, introduced by the first violins, is marked by a recurrent trill. Movement two is the symphony's warmly beating heart, a serenade for muted violins which, to quote Edward Downes (the late musicologist, not the late conductor), reveals “an enchanting Rococo ornamentation and delicate texture which seems closer to that of a string quartet than of a symphony.”
Movement three, after adeceptively genteel opening, evolves into a propulsive minuet, with dotted rhythms and sudden fortissimos. Particularly strikinghere are the unison wind octaves with which each of its two sections concludes. The finale is a dashing, harmonically rich affair, in the style of Haydn’s “hunting” finales.