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Mackerras: Mozart – Requiem, Adagio & Fugue (FLAC)

Mackerras: Mozart - Requiem; Adagio & Fugue (FLAC)
Mackerras: Mozart - Requiem; Adagio & Fugue (FLAC)

Performer: Peter de Rose, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Susan Gritton, Timothy Robinson
Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (image+cue)
Label: Linn Records
Size: 239 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

01. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Introitus: Requiem
02. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Introitus: Kyrie
03. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Dies irae
04. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Tuba Mirum
05. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Rex Tremendae
06. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Recordare
07. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Confutatis
08. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence:Lacrimosa
09. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sequence: Amen
10. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Offertory: Domine Jesu
11. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Offertory: Hostias
12. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sanctus: Sanctus
13. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Sanctus: Benedictus
14. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Agnus Dei: Agnus Dei
15. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Communion: Lux aeterna
16. Requiem in D Minor K626 – Communion: Cum sanctis tuis
17. Adagio & Fugue in C minor K546 – Adagio
18. Adagio & Fugue in C minor K546 – Fugue

Mozart’s Requiem as I always wanted to hear it.

Ever since I first heard the Requiem, I have always felt that the ending movements lacked the power of the opening movements. This is for obvious reasons, most notably that Sussmayr completed much of the final movements, and supposedly composed “from scratch” the Sanctus and the Benedictus. For this reason, I always found the last few movements aggravating to listen to; I would find myself wondering “what if Mozart had lived to finish this movement? What would the Hosanna fugue have sounded like? What would he have done with the Sanctus (and the most obviously non-Mozartean techniques in the work were discarded?”)
Well, if you have found yourself wondering “what if”, it is definitely worth hearing this recording. Professor Robert Levin re-interprets much of Sussmayr’s completion, often times making outright changes to the scoring and music to give it a more Mozartean feel. Levin apparently modeled many of these changes after the Great Mass in C Minor in terms of construction; and being a huge fan of that great torsoed work as well, the effect is not at all unpleasant. As a lover of all fugues big and small, I highly recommend listening to the ‘Amen’ fugue at the end of the Lacrymosa (a piece based on a fragment recovered in the 1960’s), as well as the fully developed alteration to the ‘Hosanna’ fugue which aggravated me for all those years prior to this disc. The recording is excellent, with great spatial definition and a perfect recording of the chorus. In particular, the SACD multichannel layer really shines. My only quibble is that the soloists are not the strongest I’ve heard – it’s not that they are bad, they just are a little light. Regardless, this disc is a must-own for die-hard Mozart fans as in my opinion it represents a more honest look at Mozart’s greatest work.

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