Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: Elizabeth Watts, Phyllis Pancella, Andrew Kennedy, Eric Owens, Robert Nairn
Orchestra: Handel and Haydn Society
Conductor: Harry Christophers
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Coro
Catalogue: COR16093
Release: 2011
Size: 242 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Ave verum corpus, K618
Requiem in D minor, K626
02. Introitus: Requiem
03. Kyrie
04. Dies irae
05. Tuba mirum
06. Rex tremendae
07. Recordare
08. Confutatis
09. Lacrimosa
10. Domine Jesu
11. Hostias
12. Sanctus
13. Benedictus
14. Agnus Dei
15. Communio: Lux Aeterna
16. Commentary form Robert Nairn
17. Per questa bella mano, concert aria, K 612
Following the success of the Mozart Mass in C minor last year, CORO is delighted to announce the release of its second recording with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society. Celebrated soloists Elizabeth Watts, Phyllis Pancella, Andrew Kennedy and Eric Owens joined Harry and the Society to record Mozart’s Requiem live at Boston’s Symphony Hall earlier this year.
Mozart’s final moments are reflected through this masterpiece of drama, intensity and depth. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the Requiem’s commission (delivered by a ‘messenger in black’ who refused to reveal the identity of the person who had sent him), and the fact it was left incomplete by a dying Mozart, have ensured a continued fascination with the work.
Completed by Mozart’s colleague Süssmayr in 1792, the Requiem is one of Mozart’s most popular and enduring works and one of the most enigmatic pieces of music ever composed.
The CD will also feature Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and the first recording on period instruments of his concert aria Per questa bella mano for bass voice and solo double bass obligato—a piece famous for its fiendishly difficult double bass part, performed superbly on this recording by Robert Nairn.
Harry Christophers is best known as the founder and conductor of the Sixteen vocal ensemble and its orchestra, but he began conducting the Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society in 2006 and was named its artistic director beginning in its 2009-2010 season. Christophers brings to the group the same qualities that made the Sixteen such a success: attention to the details informed period performance practice, thoughtful musicianship animated by a passionate intensity, and the ability to inspire a sumptuous, enveloping choral blend. On this recording, the chorus of the Handel and Haydn Society (the oldest continuously performing organization in the U.S., founded in 1815) is moderate in size, with 36 members, so it’s large enough to produce a full, warm sound and small enough to negotiate the music’s coloratura requirements with clean agility. Those two characteristics stand out in their performance of the Mozart Requiem. The chorus sings with clarity and precision, with a rich, rounded tone. The opulence of the sound is perhaps heard most fully in the motet Ave verum corpus, which opens the CD. The soloists in the Requiem collaborate beautifully as an ensemble and sing individually with distinction.
The album closes with a rarity, a performance of the bass aria Per questa bella mano, featuring Eric Owens, with a prominent, outrageously demanding double bass obbligato. It’s a lovely, engaging piece that’s on a par with the music of the composer’s late operas. Bassist Robert Nairn plays with fleetness and panache, but the balance of the recording foregrounds the bass somewhat unnaturally. Otherwise the sound of the live 2011 performance is clean and well-balanced.