George/Fredrik! Mozart's Requiem

Well, my personal preference is for Mackerras and the SCO on Linn which is superb both musically and sonically. Runnicle and Atlanta is also good. Both feature the revised Levin completion which tries to get rid of some of the excesses of the original completion and get closer to Mozart. However the very unfinished nature leaves it a rather unsatisfactory work in my view and subpar for Mozart.

If you want the original Bernstein's recording is pretty good.

Regards,

Tam

Dear Phil,

Tam raises a veru important point in the issue of using Sussmayer's [standard] text or Levin's new edition, which I find musically inconclusive and completely unsatisfactory.

I once had a recording of the Reqiem in the Levin reconstruction, and it would take far toolong than apost here to explain the convoluted story of how Sussmayer set about finishing the work Mozart did not, so Mrs Mozart could draw the fee, but it seems that5 though Sussmayer does some fairly non-Mozartian things [such as the incredibly technically inept parts for trombones, which one would expect to find in the orchestra in religious music in any case] the plan as executed may very well be rather close to what Mozart did have in mind. The biggest problem is that Mrs Mozart destroyed as much evidence as possible which might have indicated a patch-work effort.

In my view get the Sussmayer standard text version:

There are a number of fine central recommendations, and at the head is the one done by Colin Davis with the LSO in the 1960s on Philips. This has never disappeared from the catalogue and was last seen by me on a Philips Silver Classics issue at low mid price.

Less cental but perhaps even more wonderful and chharacterful are two that are my real favourites. Bruno Walter live at Salzburg with the Vienna Phil and State Opera Chorus on Orfeo. This has everything except a really pleasant recording, which is close and just a little fierce in fortissimo. The Solo Quartet are peerless, and the Orchestra incredibly fine, while perhaps the Chorus is not very HIP! Fervent, but not so terribly disciplined!

Bruno Walter leads a performance of Klemperer-like strength and rock-like stability, with immense drive as well as immense poise to compensate.

The other that i am very fond of is with the Vienna Boys Choir, The Gentlemen of Saint Steven's Cathedral [in Vienna] and The Vienna Symphony Orcheatra under Gillesberger. This is an RCA recording and presents in fine fairly slender tone, but exquisitely balanced recording a performance of memorable spirituality and musical perfection. Mine is on a budget re-release, currently not still about, but this is another performance that simply keeps re-appearing, as is just considering its superb musical address, and in all probability not sofar from the sound-world Mozart and Sussmayer had in mind!

Hope that helps. George

For the newer edition, Harnoncourt is the way to go. A corker of a performance in SOTA sound.

For the older edition, I prefer Josef Krips, currently on Andante. It was his last public concert, and the Vienna Philharmoni and the singers all deliver fine performances. It's probably my favorite version, irrespective of edition.


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This is, primarily, a liturgical work - accompanying the celebration of a Requiem Mass - rather than a concert piece or even an oratorio, which to my mind affects the way it is asking to be treated.

My own preference is for the Hogwood, which retains the necessary balance of light and shade, scale and pace that is so necessary for liturgical music. Superb.

James

PS: Sorry for typos, now timed out for correction.

Also, Dear Phil, I see you are at Malvern now. Please do come to mine in about the next four weeks, by which time I should have a very nice set-up running of my existing pieces [of antique Naim!] plus the new arrangements for digital replay! Email in profile.

ATB from George

Hello Phil,

If you want an excellent budget recommendation, try Rafael Frubeck de Burgos directing the New Philharmonia Orchestra.Recorded at Kingsway Hall London 1967.
I may have a bias on this version from owning a vinyl copy back in the 80’s, and thus it became my first Mozart requiem to listen to, and so judge all others…

However, the singing by Edith Mathis (soprano), Grace Bumbry (contralto), George Shirley (tenor) and Marius Ritzier (whose bass voice sends shivers down my spine) is imho all sung with real passion and the seriousness this masterpiece deserves. The chorus is a delight too.

Available on CD from amazon at £2.54 plus p&p and this version also contains a fantastic 5 and a half minutes of ‘Masonic Funeral Music’ K477 directed by Otto Klemperer and performed at Abbey Road Studio London 1964. This is a great lead in to the following requiem.

It’s a bargain too! : )

nymph

This too is my first version of the Requiem! Classics for Pleasure vinyl (£1.99 I think, in 1983)! And I am still very fond of it for sentimental reasons, reminder of my undergrad days in Sheffield. (Ahhh, bless).

Phil, to return to your original question, there are loads of great readings of this magnificent work. Each has its merits, so you'll probably need all of them! But if you look carefully you'll probably find them all available for under a £fiver!

James

Out of interest George, whose recordings of the Levin have you heard?

regards, Tam

Hogwood, I think! Emphasis on think as it was along time ago! I had just got the old Philips set with Colin Davis, and decided to take a punt on an HIP performance. Strangely it was performed at the Proms about that time by Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir in the standard text, and I had it on a home reorded Metal Compact Cassette till someone half inched it.

Hogwood, I think, but this is nearly twenty years ago!

I have heard the Levin Edition done live and was even less convinced by that than the recording.

Sorry to seem vague, as I parted with it on the grounds of dislike. I wanted Gardiner to make a recording of the standard text, but somehow I then found the recording of the Vienna Choir, which seemed the best of the lot to me.

Then came the Bruno Walter set live in 1956 at Salzburg, and so I have respectable range of types of perfomance now.

ATB from George

All,

Many thanks for your insight into this. I've picked up the Linn recording initially as i'm a sucker for good quality recordings. My Fiance has another, which we'll compare it with.

George, i'll be in touch - many thanks for the invite!

Phil

Let us know how you get on Phil.

George, I'll have to play you the Mackerras when I get the chance.


regards, Tam

Dear Phil,

Domestic arrangements should be good by next week! So anytime after that! Perhaps I shall have a nicely improved replay arangement running in a month however, so possibly worth the wait for that.

Dear Tam,

I shall be running up to my friend in Kirkaldy again in the next month, so perhaps I can "hang a left" and touch base in Edinbourgh on th way home? Probably that will be a Sunday afternoon like last time.

I have some more Furtwangler recordings found! The Great C Major, and Unfinished in a wonderfull serene 1953 BPO broadcast, and a more or less incredibly fine VPO concert in Stockholm from 1943 for the Great C Major alone. So you can let me listen to the Mozart, and I can bring you some fine Schubert!

ATB from George

Matters arrising. I have been sent the Hogwood recording metioned above and it is the HIP performance I let go twenty odd years ago after a very short period.

It is a lovely performance, and it shows just how much taste evolves that I could only be drawn into the music in a performance that twenty years ago left me unmoved.

For the Levin Text this makes a lovely recomendation, and thanks to the kind person who so generously posted the CD to me for making my return to this performance happen!

George