Mozart’s enduring Requiem owes some of its timeless staying power to the composer’s death prior to its completion—further made a thing of mystery and “what if?” by the Oscar-winning film Amadeus—but its true appeal is plain to hear in Mozart’s final musical expression of humanity and mortality. The New York Times has praised James Gaffigan’s interpretation of the Requiem for its “uncommon drama,” and the conductor leads Mozart’s memorable funeral mass with a stellar cast of soloists and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In the first half, Gaffigan navigates Ellen Reid’s Body Cosmic, which offers a meditation on the surreality of pregnancy, as well as Brahms’ “Song of Destiny,” a brief but masterful choral and symphonic that has been called a “Little Requiem.”

James Gaffigan, conductor

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Los Angeles Master Chorale