“Listen, Salieri, my Requiem”: Requiem by V.A. Mozart in the cultural life of Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

This article concentrates on the Russian reception history of the most famous church work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his Requiem mass in D minor, in the 19th–beginning of the 20th centuries, up to the Russian revolution. Taking as a premise some research methods outlined in current studies by Simon P. Keefe (Mozart’s Requiem, 2012) and Mark Everist (Mozart’s Ghosts, 2012), it shall propose its own research strategy that views the ʻRussian after-lifeʼ of this unfinished masterpiece from different angles. First, I shall contextualize the Requiem reception history within local editorial practices, scrutinising a number of editions, transcriptions, and arrangements, published in Russia in the period under consideration (e.g., a vocal score with A. Maykov’s Russian translation of the text printed in Saint Petersburg). Second, I will illustrate the process of Requiem’s integration into the repertoire of the most influential concert organisations (such as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Society), using a sample of extant concert programs and announcements. Third, I will outline a wide range of approaches towards this composition and its performances in musicological studies, critical essays, and concert reviews (for instance, in the Russian version of A. Ulybyshev’s Mozart Biography, translated by M. Tchaikovsky and commented by H. Laroche). Finally, I shall shed some light on the way Mozart’s masterpiece was creatively used in the current compositional process, examining its incorporation into works written by Russian musicians (e.g., in N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera «Mozart and Salieri»). Viewing the reception history from all these analytical angles helps create a multifaceted portrait of the Requiem’s ‘after-life’ in Russia, one that shows a gradual change of its meaning and soundscape in the process of interaction between Russian and Austrian cultures.