Ahead of Sydney Chamber Choir‘s performance of Mozart’s Requiem, Limelight speaks to SCC Artistic Director Sam Allchurch about his relationship with the work and his hope that audiences will “feel the flames” of Mozart’s final work.

Sydney Chamber Choir Artistic Director Sam Allchurch

Sydney Chamber Choir Artistic Director Sam Allchurch. Photo supplied

When did you first encounter Mozart’s Requiem. Can you remember?

I remember quite clearly. It was through a wonderful music teacher in Year 11. I’d already heard bits of it before mainly from Amadeus, and I knew about the legend that was around it – the whole ‘written-on-the-deathbed’ story. But Year 11 was the first time I really studied it in any depth.

Actually, in preparation for this concert, I dug out my old Year 11 study score. So much of what I wrote was rubbish! But basically, the Requiem is one of those pieces that has a part of my life – albeit in a peripheral way – until now.

This is your first time conducting it. What’s it like to approach the mountain, so to speak?

It’s certainly a mountain. It’s fascinating because there are so interpretations that have...