For their latest concert, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs with Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark decided to program Mozart’s final – and famously unfinished – work: the iconic Requiem. Like the Choir’s recent Night of the Soul concert for Sydney Festival 2022, they wanted Mozart: Requiem & Revelations to be experienced as a musical journey, taking in some of the composer’s other compositions, from the earliest compositions through to his final masterpiece. But with 41 symphonies, 22 operas, numerous concertos, string quartets, and masses, not to mention his countless occasional pieces, how to choose? And how should they go about arranging these other works? Enter Sydney composer, orchestrator and arranger Jessica Wells. Clive Paget caught up with both Brett Weymark and Jessica Wells to find out more, and especially what the latter has up her sleeve to deal with the moment when the bedridden Mozart’s pen fell from his hand.


BRETT WEYMARK

What was the inspiration behind Mozart: Requiem & Revelations and what do you hope to achieve?

I was very keen to find a work that both the audience and chorus knew well and that would herald the arrival of the company back into the concert hall after more or...