MOZART: Requiem – London Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Colin Davis, conductor – LSO Live Multichannel SACD LSO0627, 51 min. ***1/2 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi]:
Mozart’s encounter with a mysterious stranger who appeared unexpectedly at his door, refused to identify himself, and demanded that Mozart compose a Requiem was memorialized (if, albeit, somewhat fictionally) in the movie Amadeus. And though the stranger was most definitely not Antonio Salieri, it’s still a great story that rings essentially of the truth. Mozart accepted the commission, and in between some final work on the operas The Magic Flute and La clemenza di Tito, he worked frantically on the requiem, and probably helped advance the illness from which he was already suffering that would eventually kill him, short of the requiem’s completion.
His pupil Sussmayer is considered, by all accounts, to have taken the completed movements and Mozart’s fragments – at Constanze Mozart’s bidding – and attempted to assemble them according to Mozart’s wishes. Sussmayer was not a particularly gifted composer, but he nonetheless should be commended for rescuing one of history’s great musical torsos. The completed Requiem was delivered; later it was discovered that a local amateur composer, Count Walsegg-Stuppach, had arranged the commission, and upon receipt of the finished work, copied it in his own hand and attempted to pass it off as his own. The Requiem had already been performed at this point and attributed to Mozart, and the count’s deceit was made obvious. The true story of Mozart’s Requiem is every bit as entertaining as the fictionalized version!
In terms of performance values, there are countless good recordings of the Requiem (and a few great ones), and this one isn’t going to displace any of them. Typically for a live recording, there are timing errors throughout, but all the parties involved generally do an acceptably good job. And the disc offers remarkably good sound, capturing a really lush, believable surround sound representation of London’s Barbican. This is a very good recording – it’s just not an exceptional one. Recommended especially for its impressive sound presentation.
— Tom Gibbs
