Donizetti, Gaetano - Messa da Requiem - Rahbari, Alexander (conductor)

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Bellini had died unexpectedly at the age of only thirty-three near Paris, so that the premiere of Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor took place in an atmosphere dampened by mourning. Ricordi, who published both Bellini's and Donizetti's works, bade Donizetti to write something "suitable". Donizetti began by writing his Requiem Mass and later composed a funeral symphony using themes of Bellini. The Requiem is incomplete, lacking the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei sections. A planned performance did not eventuate because a sponsor withdrew his financial support. The work was not published until 1870, twenty-two years after Donizetti's death and it was premiered in the same year at Bergamo Cathedral, where Donizetti had been a chorister. The only known performances in the ensuing years were to mark the centenaries of the composer's birthday and death. The Requiem was not heard by a larger public until the second half of the twentieth century.