Mozart - Requiem
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Label: Linn
Cat No: CKR449
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 19th January 2018
Contents
Artists
Joann Lunn (soprano)Rowan Hellie (alto)
Thomas Hobbs (tenor)
Matthew Brook (bass-baritone)
Dunedin Consort
Conductor
John ButtWorks
Requiem in D minor, K626 (Sussmayr/David Black edition)Artists
Joann Lunn (soprano)Rowan Hellie (alto)
Thomas Hobbs (tenor)
Matthew Brook (bass-baritone)
Dunedin Consort
Conductor
John ButtAbout
The Dunedin Consort presents the premiere recording of Mozart scholar David Black’s new 2013 edition of Süssmayr's completion of Mozart’s Requiem.
In keeping with several other Dunedin projects, this provides the opportunity to re-imagine what this work may have sounded like at its very first performance. To this end, the recording will be the first not only to use this new edition, but also to present the work using forces close in style and scale to those at the first performances.
One striking element of these performances is the fact that the soloists are also the leaders of the choir, thus giving a greater consistency to the relationship between the solo numbers and the choruses.
Dunedin Consort seeks to resurrect Süssmayr's much maligned edition to its place and worth in history.
‘Crisp singing and clear diction is matched by outstanding technical ability by the singers.’ - Sunday Herald
‘The playing of the Dunedin Players under John Butt is admirably crisp, and the singing of the Consort disciplined and clear in enunciation.’ - Sunday Telegraph
‘The playing and the singing is outstanding. Highly recommended.’ - The Observer
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The Europadisc Review
In the space of just a few years, new releases from John Butt and the Dunedin Consort have become much anticipated events, and this latest addition to their growing catalogue certainly doesn’t disappoint. As with their earlier recordings of choral masterpieces by Handel and JS Bach, this disc of Mozart’s Requiem sheds new light on familiar repertoire. If it’s not quite as revelatory as their liturgical reconstruction of Bach’s St John Passion, it’s nevertheless every bit as fascinating.
In his detailed and exceptionally informative booklet notes, John Butt argues persuasively for the use of Franz Xaver Süssmayr’s completion of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, rather than any of the modern attempts that have become fashionable in recent years. And there are indeed good grounds for this: Süssmayr was someone who not only knew Mozart closely, but who was the product of the same cultural milieu. His completion, for all its faults (and they are perhaps not as many as is sometimes claimed), bears the powerful legitimacy of being contemporary with Mozart’s music itself; those who ignore this fact do so at their peril!
Benefiting from important new research into Mozart’s Viennese church music practices by musicologist David Black, Butt and his musicians present the Requiem as it might have been heard at its first complete performance. This took place at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow Constanze on 2 January 1793 in Vienna’s Jahn-Saal. The venue would have lacked an organ, and accordingly the continuo instrument used in this performance is a fortepiano, which seems wonderfully appropriate for the theatrical, almost operatic flavour of much of the music. The four-to-a-part choir is led, as it would have been in Mozart’s time, by a team of accomplished soloists, giving the sound an edginess that is often absent in the more homogenised choral performances that have become customary in the two centuries since the composer’s death. Particularly outstanding in this new recording are Joanna Lunn’s pure-toned but imposing soprano, and Matthew Brook’s sure-voiced bass. Speeds flow beautifully without hurrying, the contrapuntal lines are remarkably clear, and phrases and dynamics are shaped with loving care. The orchestral contribution is of an unfailingly high standard, with particularly characterful clarinet and brass playing.
As if all this weren’t enough, a substantial bonus comes in the form of three items that may have been performed at Mozart’s own funeral, on 10 December 1791 at St Michael’s Church in Vienna. These are the offertory Misericordias Domini, K222, and the first two movements of his Requiem, with substantially reduced strings, and with trumpets and timpani in just the opening introit, ‘Requiem aeternam’ (the parts for these instruments in the Kyrie were probably added only later). Following the well-documented practice at St Michael’s, there are just two singers per part, doubled by trombones. The result is a striking transformation of perspectives in the two Requiem movements, highlighting unexpected musical details. And the early Misericordias Domini makes an unusually powerful impression too, particularly the second subject with its striking anticipation of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ theme.
If you think you already know Mozart’s Requiem, think again and listen to this disc! Even those listeners who are otherwise allergic to ‘period performance’ are sure to respond positively to its combination of informed research and sensitive musicianship.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Requiem - Requiem aeternam
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2Requiem - Kyrie
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3Requiem - Dies irae
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4Requiem - Tuba mirum
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5Requiem - Rex tremendae
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6Requiem - Recordare
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7Requiem - Confutatis
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8Requiem - Lacrimosa
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9Requiem - Domine Jesu
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10Requiem - Hostias
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11Requiem - Quam olim Abrahae
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12Requiem - Sanctus
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13Requiem - Benedictus & Osanna
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14Requiem - Agnus Dei
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15Requiem - Lux aeterna
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16Requiem - Cum sanctis
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17Misericordias Domini in D minor
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18Requiem - Requiem aeternam (reconstruction)
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19Requiem - Kyrie (reconstruction)
Europadisc Review
In his detailed and exceptionally informative booklet notes, John Butt argues persuasively for the use of Franz Xaver Süssmayr’s completion of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, rather than any of the modern attempts that have become fashionable in recent years. And there are indeed good grounds for this: Süssmayr was someone who not only knew Mozart closely, but who was the product of the same cultural milieu. His completion, for all its faults (and they are perhaps not as many as is sometimes claimed), bears the powerful legitimacy of being contemporary with Mozart’s music itself; those who ignore this fact do so at their peril!
Benefiting from important new research into Mozart’s Viennese church music practices by musicologist David Black, Butt and his musicians present the Requiem as it might have been heard at its first complete performance. This took place at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow Constanze on 2 January 1793 in Vienna’s Jahn-Saal. The venue would have lacked an organ, and accordingly the continuo instrument used in this performance is a fortepiano, which seems wonderfully appropriate for the theatrical, almost operatic flavour of much of the music. The four-to-a-part choir is led, as it would have been in Mozart’s time, by a team of accomplished soloists, giving the sound an edginess that is often absent in the more homogenised choral performances that have become customary in the two centuries since the composer’s death. Particularly outstanding in this new recording are Joanna Lunn’s pure-toned but imposing soprano, and Matthew Brook’s sure-voiced bass. Speeds flow beautifully without hurrying, the contrapuntal lines are remarkably clear, and phrases and dynamics are shaped with loving care. The orchestral contribution is of an unfailingly high standard, with particularly characterful clarinet and brass playing.
As if all this weren’t enough, a substantial bonus comes in the form of three items that may have been performed at Mozart’s own funeral, on 10 December 1791 at St Michael’s Church in Vienna. These are the offertory Misericordias Domini, K222, and the first two movements of his Requiem, with substantially reduced strings, and with trumpets and timpani in just the opening introit, ‘Requiem aeternam’ (the parts for these instruments in the Kyrie were probably added only later). Following the well-documented practice at St Michael’s, there are just two singers per part, doubled by trombones. The result is a striking transformation of perspectives in the two Requiem movements, highlighting unexpected musical details. And the early Misericordias Domini makes an unusually powerful impression too, particularly the second subject with its striking anticipation of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ theme.
If you think you already know Mozart’s Requiem, think again and listen to this disc! Even those listeners who are otherwise allergic to ‘period performance’ are sure to respond positively to its combination of informed research and sensitive musicianship.
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