Mozart: Requiem Aeternam

Mysterious rumors surrounding Mozart's Requiem started circulating very soon after the composer's death. At first, the story was that Mozart, physically ill and slaving away, was somehow foreseeing his own end. From there on, it was only a matter of time before people were imagining everything from poisonings to Masonic conspiracies. The work's anonymous commission was a seemingly mysterious detail, but we now know that the mysterious patron was one Count Walsegg-Stuppach. What's more, Mozart had friends in the Count's court orchestra, and would probably have been able to deduce the identity of his patron. The only real mystery about the Requiem is the eternal one expressed in its topic-the mystery of life after death. Although Mozart only completed the first movement, Mozart's student and copyist, Franz Süssmayr, finished it for him.