Mozart Norman Mäkelä

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was newly married when he began writing his C-minor mass in 1782, and composed many of the melodies of the work with his wife Constanze in mind. She was one of the soloists during the premiere in Mozart’s native city of Salzburg in 1783. The next day they left, never to return; Mozart turned his back on his father and his hometown. The Mass was never completed, but is still counts among Mozart’s masterpieces.

“Mozart’s Great Mass in C-Minor is one of the most fascinating works out there”, says Chief Conductor Klaus Mäkelä. “When I first heard Andrew Norman’s fantastic orchestra work Sustain, I thought that this would be the perfect continuation and conclusion to Mozart’s Mass”.

American composer Andrew Norman (b. 1979) wrote Sustain for the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2018. The work was nominated for both a Grammy and the Pulitzer Prize, and has been described as a masterpiece by the Los Angeles Times and the New Yorker Magazine.

(Translation from Norwegian: Sarah Osa)