Pasadena Choral Society Stages an Unfinished Requiem Through the Composer’s Own Words

There are easier ways to perform Mozart’s “Requiem” than to perform only the parts Mozart himself finished. The traditional concert version includes the completions Franz Xaver Süssmayr added after the composer’s death in 1791, and audiences have heard them for more than two centuries. The Pasadena Choral Society, mounting “Life of Mozart” Wednesday night at San Marino Community Church, has chosen the harder path. The ensemble will perform the work in its unfinished form, including only the portions Mozart himself completed, with an actor weaving the music together with Mozart’s own letters.

Musician and actor Milo Brody, a Pasadena native, takes on the role of the composer. Brody is a graduate of the Pasadena Waldorf School, where he performed with the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra, and an alumnus of the Pasadena Chorale’s “Listening to the Future” young composer program. He now studies trombone performance and English at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he performs with the Oberlin Orchestra, Brass Ensemble and Baroque Ensemble and sings with the Collegium Musicum.

The result is a portrait of Mozart in his final days, sketched in his own correspondence and scored to the music he was racing to complete. Mozart’s “Requiem,” left unfinished at his death, has remained one of the most enigmatic works in the choral repertoire, inspiring more than two centuries of speculation about its commission and meaning.

“Life of Mozart” closes the Pasadena Choral Society’s second season. The Pasadena Choral Society is one of four ensembles under the Pasadena Chorale umbrella, which won the American Prize in Choral Performance for its most recent season. The concert is free and open to the public.

Life of Mozart” will be performed on Wednesday, May 20 at 7:30 p.m. San Marino Community Church, 1750 Virginia Road, San Marino. For more information, call (626) 208-0009 or visit pasadenachorale.org. Admission is free.