Michael Haydn: Requiem

Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor (MH 155) is a dramatic and moving mass for the dead, scored for choir, soloists, and orchestra. 

The work was composed in December 1771 following the death of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Sigismund von Schrattenbach. 

Created over a short period, the work is considered deeply personal for the composer; the Archbishop was a benefactor, popular among the people, and a great patron and lover of music who had employed Michael. 

The composition was also shaped by the composer’s personal grief: Haydn’s infant daughter, Aloisia Josepha, had died earlier that same year before reaching her first birthday.

Michael Haydn’s Requiem had a profound influence on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem, composed twenty years later. Today, Michael Haydn’s Requiem is performed relatively rarely, although it retains a devoted following in the region where it originated.

The program also features 17th-century English funeral music: Henry Purcell’s *Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary*, composed for the interment of Queen Mary II.

Iirisilona Segerstam, soprano

Inga Sauranen, alto

Juho Punkeri, tenor

Marko Korpela, bass

Suomen Laulu Choir

Ensemble Nylandia, conductor Matias Häkkinen

Temppeliaukio Church

1.11.2026

18.30 & 20.30

Tickets 8-35€ from Lippupiste