1787 - Highs and Lows

Donald Macleod follows Mozart through a year of emotional extremes, from glory to grief.

All this week, we’ll be hearing Mozart’s famous swansong, his Requiem, in its entirety as Donald Macleod charts the highs and lows of the composer's last five years, from veneration to humiliation and back again. We hear how Mozart coped with all that life threw at him and somehow managed to compose many of the works he’s most loved for today.

Today, we meet Mozart in Prague, where he’s flavour of the month and his new opera has the whole city gripped by “Figaro-mania”. But back home in Vienna, his world is about to come crashing down around him.

Requiem: Introit (excerpt)
Dunedin Consort
John Butt, conductor

Ein musikalischer Spass (iv. Presto)
Dennis Brain, horn
Neill Sanders, horn
Philharmonia Orchestra
Guido Cantelli, conductor

Symphony No 38 “Prague” (iii. Presto)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Charles Mackerras, conductor

Canon: Ach zu kurz ist unsers Lebenslauf
Requiem: Introit and Kyrie
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon, conductor

String Quintet in G minor, K515 (ii. Adagio, arr. for piano)
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Serenade in G, K525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" (1st and 2nd movements)
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall, director

Don Giovanni, Act I: Madamina (Catalogue aria)
Ferruccio Furlanetto (Leporello), bass
Berlin Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West