Requiem in B-flat major

Scoring: Soli SAATTB, Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cor, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

Hasse’s much smaller-scale Requiem in B flat, which we are publishing for the first time, was presumably composed as early as the second half of the 1750s. Nothing is known about the occasion for which this beautiful work was composed, or even whether it was performed during the composer’s lifetime. Perhaps the Seven Years War, in which the electorate of Saxony was involved, prevented any performance. Several borrowings from it in his Requiem in C major and in the later Requiem in E flat major show that Hasse held the work in high regard.