Events
Event Eight (Ramallah, 4 April)
Event Nine (Nablus, 5 April)
Performers
Choir of London
Simon Hewitt Jones violin
Clemency Burton-Hill violin
Chris Brown viola
Sophie Rivlin cello
Jeremy Summerly conductor
Ave verum corpus K. 618
Widely considered to be one of the finest short choral works ever written, the Ave verum corpus is also one of the last pieces Mozart wrote, coinciding with The Magic Flute and the Requiem. The text is a 14th-century eucharistic hymn attributed to Pope Innocent VI, and Mozart’s setting was written for Anton Stoll (a friend of his and Haydn’s) who was musical co-ordinator in the parish of Baden, near Vienna. It was composed to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi and the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. Mozart's manuscript itself contains minimal directions, with only a single sotto voce at the beginning, and he composed this motet while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was less than six months before Mozart's death.
 
Mozart: Ave verum corpus K. 618