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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Requiem |
| 2. Kyrie |
| 3. Dies Irae |
| 4. Tuba Mirum |
| 5. Rex Tremendae |
| 6. Recordare |
| 7. Confutatis |
| 8. Lacrimosa |
| 9. Domine Jesu |
| 10. Hostias |
| 11. Sanctus |
| 12. Benedictus |
| 13. Agnus Dei |
| 14. Lux Aeterna |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Beethoven called Mozart's Requiem "wild and terrible", and that's what we get in Harnoncourt's new recording. Ominous dread hangs from every note of the dark opening measures, the Rex tremendae and Confutatis are driven with terrifying strength, and the supplications of the Lacrimosa, with their weeping stabbings of the orchestra, are freighted with emotional power. The Tuba mirum duet of bass soloist and trombone has a beauty almost never achieved in other readings. Nor does Harnoncourt overstep the stylistic boundaries of this classical-era work; rather, the intensity is heightened for being in the idiom of its time. Call it a Romantic reading of a Classical piece that looks forward to a more unbuttoned era. The soloists couldn't be better; the orchestra is first-rate, the chorus, sensational, singing with a sense of color, line, and emotion. Harnoncourt uses the Beyer edition of Süssmayr's completion of the work, and Mozart's unfinished original manuscript can be! accessed via a CD-ROM track, which scrolls as the music plays. This release gets my vote as the best Mozart Requiem on disc, all the more impressive for being a live concert performance in excellent sound. --Dan Davis
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This recording has received 'rave' reviews in both Gramophone (July 2004) and BBC Music Magazine (October 2004), and I refer you to these for 'expert' opinion, which mine is not.
No one who loves this monumental work will be satisfied with just one disc, and as readers of the Penguin Guide will know, there are many excellent recordings to choose from.
Why chose Harnoncourt? He comes with a certain reputation for stamping his personality on the works he conducts, which is not to everyone's taste.
But what he does do, especially in Mozart, is get away from a certain 'plush' 19th Century romanticism, which for me takes away the raw, elemental grandeur of works like the Requiem and the Great C Minor Mass.
Conducting the Concentus Musicus Wien, with a fine team of soloists, and backed by a superb recording, this should disc be at/near the top of any buyer's shortlist.
As a bonus, Harnoncourt writes his own notes, in which I found much that was new to me about the background, genesis, and 'completion' of what he calls Sussmayr's "stopgap solution".
In fact, what he uses here is "the new critical edition by Franz Beyer, which carefully corrects technical mistakes made by Sussmayr" but no more than that.
I would like to award six stars, but Amazon won't let me!
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As Harnoncourt notes in the inlay, it would indeed have been interesting to hear what music Mozart would have composed in his later years had he not died so tragically young. His requiem seems quite a departure from his usual style - it is dramatic, full of emotional power, and you will never forget the first time you hear it. The requiem has also served as an inspiration to many over the years, and continues to provide rich examples to students and even composers for today's movies, of how to reach the deepest most varied emotions in a musical score.
Harnoncourt's interpretation doesn't really come into its own until the Dies Irae. The Introitus isn't the best I've heard, the brass is too loud for my taste, and the ambience too dry. The choir and orchestra doesn't sound grand enough for this piece. The Kyrie suffers similarly, and seems to beg more drama than it was afforded in this recording.
However, the Dies Irae shatters the somewhat cautious opening, and suddenly our ears are opened to the full drama and flair that Harnoncourt is capable of. From this point on it is pure magic and beauty - the orchestra stabs and soothes, the choir soars and dances with the most vivid of colours, and soloists sing with such purity and clarity you can almost feel them plucking and wrenching your heart.
There are so many outstanding tracks on this album it is hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to, and while the Domine Jesu is a very close contender, it just loses out to the Confutatis - a vignette of ambivalent feelings, a piece that beautifully contrasts between powerful attack and majestic splendour, between war and peace, knowledge and innocence, adulthood and childhood, dark and light. In my opinion, although short, it's one of the most inspirational pieces of music that Mozart ever wrote.
My only real disappointment with the requiem, is that Mozart never completed it! This is, of course, not a fault of Harnoncourt, but by the end of the album you can tell it is no longer Mozart's hand, and the overt repetition of earlier themes frustrates. It is at this point you may feel a little cheated, as although the album is ostensibly 50 minutes long, at least the last 5 minutes feels unnecessary. Call me butcher, but I would have stopped with the Agnus Dei, and then included a recording of a different piece, perhaps a Mozart mass, to extend the running time.
Despite the uncertain start, this album has to be one of the definitive interpretations of Mozart's requiem, and even though I feel it is over-priced for what it offers, I would still rate it as a must buy for any serious Mozart or requiem fan, or indeed anyone who loves a good bit of drama with their music.
Harnoncourt's interpretation doesn't really come into its own until the Dies Irae. The Introitus isn't the best I've heard, the brass is too loud for my taste, and the ambience too dry. The choir and orchestra doesn't sound grand enough for this piece. The Kyrie suffers similarly, and seems to beg more drama than it was afforded in this recording.
However, the Dies Irae shatters the somewhat cautious opening, and suddenly our ears are opened to the full drama and flair that Harnoncourt is capable of. From this point on it is pure magic and beauty - the orchestra stabs and soothes, the choir soars and dances with the most vivid of colours, and soloists sing with such purity and clarity you can almost feel them plucking and wrenching your heart.
There are so many outstanding tracks on this album it is hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to, and while the Domine Jesu is a very close contender, it just loses out to the Confutatis - a vignette of ambivalent feelings, a piece that beautifully contrasts between powerful attack and majestic splendour, between war and peace, knowledge and innocence, adulthood and childhood, dark and light. In my opinion, although short, it's one of the most inspirational pieces of music that Mozart ever wrote.
My only real disappointment with the requiem, is that Mozart never completed it! This is, of course, not a fault of Harnoncourt, but by the end of the album you can tell it is no longer Mozart's hand, and the overt repetition of earlier themes frustrates. It is at this point you may feel a little cheated, as although the album is ostensibly 50 minutes long, at least the last 5 minutes feels unnecessary. Call me butcher, but I would have stopped with the Agnus Dei, and then included a recording of a different piece, perhaps a Mozart mass, to extend the running time.
Despite the uncertain start, this album has to be one of the definitive interpretations of Mozart's requiem, and even though I feel it is over-priced for what it offers, I would still rate it as a must buy for any serious Mozart or requiem fan, or indeed anyone who loves a good bit of drama with their music.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is an astonishingly fresh and vibrant recording, with outstanding clarity of sound in every respect. This CD tops all recordings of this Requiem we've got on our shelves. If you like the sound of the Schoenberg Choir, try Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Harnoncourt; less convincing orchestra performance, for once, but great soloists and outstanding choir: no idea how a choir can achieve this lightness and ease!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
How does this recording rate 5 stars.
I purchased this recording after reading the Amazon reviews. I'm no expert, but I was dissatisfied after listening to it. I think it is insipid. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ian
It is lovely and dark, yet clear in tone and quality.
There is a wonderful darkness to the album, yet clear in tone and quality in regards to sound quality. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr. R. J. Aston
Not to worry.
Not to worry if you do not have SACD compatible equipment...this recording will play on a standard CD player but the sound reproduction will not be able to take advantage of the... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2008 by B. Williams
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