The hauntingly beautiful Requiem Mass in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be performed by the Kirkland Choral Society at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, at Bellevue’s Westminster Chapel.

This powerful Requiem, directed by Dr. Glenn R. Gregg, stands 220 years later as living testament to Mozart’s genius and the deeply expressive nature of his music. During its writing, Mozart reportedly told his wife, “I feel I am composing my own requiem.” Left unfinished at his death, the last notes that Mozart wrote are the soaring opening measures of Lacrimosa (weeping): “That day of tears and mourning, when from the ashes all humanity shall arise to be judged …”

Dr. Gregg notes that this universally beloved composition was performed as a Memorial Mass for President John F. Kennedy. It is a fine example of the Classical period, and a testament to Mozart’s genius for melding of melody and text to human voice.

To represent the 19th century Romantic musical tradition, KCS will also present Nänie by Johannes Brahms. Set to German poet Friedrich Schiller’s secular text, this lamentation for Brahm’s deceased friend symbolizes the Greek myths of Apollo and Aphrodite, Achilles and Thetis. Love, like all things beautiful, ends with death; yet the bereaved find solace and acceptance of life’s brevity in memories of the departed.

J. S. Bach’s popular Cantata 106, an early Baroque work, completes the KCS program. Bach’s German text borrows from Biblical phrases and German chorales, contrasting the Old Testament message that man must die, with the New Testament promise of eternal life.

The concert will also be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 24, at Daniels Recital Hall, 811 Fifth Avenue, Seattle. Bellevue’s Westminster Chapel is located at 13646 N.E. 24th St. For tickets, adults $18 and senior/student $12, go to KirklandChoralSociety.org, or phone 425-296-0612.