BaL 27.02.16 - Mozart: Requiem Mass in D minor K.626

[aeolium]

I thought it was a very good survey and clear explanation of precisely which music was undeniably by Mozart and which was added by other hands. NK did seem to skate fairly swiftly through the three Süssmayr movements so that few of the "imperfections" he referred to in his conclusion were highlighted, but it was good that he gave examples of all the different completions (I thought the Levin one sounded the best of the non-Süssmayrs). I don't think he mentioned, as Hogwood does, that the Mozart fragment of the Amen fugue used by Maunder and Levin but not Süssmayr was an inversion of the Requiem theme and that makes it more likely that it was intended for use at the end of the Lacrimosa.

But it was good to hear a lot of different extracts in different performing styles and to be reminded how wonderful the music that Mozart did leave is.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Reading through the whole thread after the broadcast, I'm beginning to think that Mr Kenyon cribbed many of its strong shouts, e.g. for Margaret Price in the Schreier

Am a bit ashamed that that's my only CD version, with just the EMI Barenboim on LP. May have to buy one of the more exotic alternative editions simply to boost my Mozartian street-cred (Süssmayr? -PAH!!!).

[vinteuil]

... very much enjoyed this survey. The Levin completions sounded interesting - I shall get the Boston to add to the various CDs on the shelves. But perhaps not at this price -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ABC0Y0M

[Barbirollians]

I was not all that impressed by the extracts from the winner - Gardiner remains top of the pile listening to that for me . I assume the trusty old Fruhbeck de Burgos is nla.

I thought that the Maunder version sounded pretty dire and a great waste of Kirkby et al .

[Barbirollians]

The recommended Butt recording sounds a bit ordinary, even flaccid, to my ears... (As was his Messiah of a few years ago.)

Don't know that Messiah but I agree entirely about what we heard today .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't have it, but there's also a DVD/Blu-ray recording with The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Abbado. I heard it a couple of years ago and it was among the best.

Abbado usually wins BaLs, but not today.

[ardcarp]

I felt a certain inner conflict during today's BAL. To put it naively, there was a confusion between musicology and musicality. I would have preferred NK either to have focused on the many trad. Sussmayr-completed versions or to have compared other versions and selected a 'best'.

From a personal point of view, I'm not sure I want a Mozart's Reqiem played by a Baroque band with a tiny choir of soloists. Having said that I thought sopranos Joanne Lunn and Carolyn Sampson sounded pretty darn good in Butt and Suzuki respectively.

The Gramophone had this to say about the Butt/Dunedin Consort's version:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/mozart-requiem-3

...so maybe not a bad overall winner?

[DracoM]

Inclined to agree: the Butt emerged for me - a recording i did not know at all. It offered clarity and focus that made sense as music.

As ardcarp so rightly says, the plethora of well-intentioned and mostly well-informed scholarly approaches to this most contentious of major works makes picking a 'winner' highly problematic in any context. I thought NK stepped gingerly through much of the undergrowth and did as well as any reviewer could.

Talk about drawing the short straw...........!!

[Barbirollians]

Inclined to agree: the Butt emerged for me - a recording i did not know at all. It offered clarity and focus that made sense as music.

As ardcarp so rightly says, the plethora of well-intentioned and mostly well-informed scholarly approaches to this most contentious of major works makes picking a 'winner' highly problematic in any context. I thought NK stepped gingerly through much of the undergrowth and did as well as any reviewer could.



Talk about drawing the short straw...........!!

Gardiner only had one extract as I recall and the solo singing on that version is outstanding .

[visualnickmos]

I was not all that impressed by the extracts from the winner - Gardiner remains top of the pile listening to that for me . I assume the trusty old Fruhbeck de Burgos is nla.

I thought that the Maunder version sounded pretty dire and a great waste of Kirkby et al .

It most certainly is available in the usual watery place - and from £0,01!!! Hurry, hurry

[visualnickmos]

I was not all that impressed by the extracts from the winner - Gardiner remains top of the pile listening to that for me. I assume the trusty old Fruhbeck de Burgos is nla.

I thought that the Maunder version sounded pretty dire and a great waste of Kirkby et al .

I thought Gardiner made it sound like a very English choral piece! It seemed to conjure up images of a very stiff Victorian church service But what do I know...?

[Barbirollians]

I thought Gardiner made it sound like a very English choral piece! It seemed to conjure up images of a very stiff Victorian church service But what do I know...?

No doubt a reminder of the difficulty of assessing a recording from a brief extract - the Gardiner recording as a whole is the very opposite of a very stiff Victorian service .Perhaps the Butt sounds more exciting as a whole .

[waldo]

I've got this Butt recording, as it happens. I think it is probably a reasonable choice, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as Gardiner. My feeling (from perhaps three or four listens) is that it is a little short on grace and consolation. Plenty of drama and hard-driven torment, but not enough of the other side. Listening to sections of it side by side with the Gardiner, I am also tempted to say that the general shaping and orchestral management lacks a bit of subtlety. It is very standard HIP, if you can accept that description: pacy and sharply defined, lots of volume swells and sharp attacks. But Gardiner manages to draw out a much deeper palette of sounds and moods. He seems to find more time when it is needed, more space, making room for a metaphysical depth that is largely elbowed aside by Butt in his drive to get to the next climax. Some of this might be the absence of a true choir and the "smoother" textures that permits. Some is probably down to superior conducting.

As for the singers, Butt's are generally very good. Excellent soprano (Joanne Lunn) and really terrific bass (Matthew Brook). The alto, Rowan Hellier, is not really my cup of tea - a bit wobbly, especially in the opening of the Benedictus. No match, certainly, for Anne Sophie von Otter in Gardiner.

[visualnickmos]

No doubt a reminder of the difficulty of assessing a recording from a brief extract - the Gardiner recording as a whole is the very opposite of a very stiff Victorian service .Perhaps the Butt sounds more exciting as a whole .

I'm sure you are right. I often remark about BaL, that it is really quite impossible to make a genuinely reasoned judgment from a few bars of music of any given piece. I am certainly up for listening to the Gardiner recording in it's entirity, and if I can find a 'cheapy' will certainly do so. I generally enjoy his recordings - the few that I possess, or have listened to with friends. I particularly like his 'Planets' on DG. I apologise if my comment gave the wrong impression. My fault. As for the Butt recommendation - odd phrasing, I know(!) I have never heard of, or heard it... it may well be a worthy winner. NK was very honest in his assessments; very near the end he said something like "it really depends on what you want" which in a way was like saying that one should go for something one likes the sound of - the very essence of musical choice, when all is said and done.

I thought this was an excellent BaL. A devil of a job I'm sure - just knowing exactly how to approach such an amorphous set of recordings, for one thing. One of the 'stand out' BaLs.

[Barbirollians]

Anyone else have or like the old EMI recording with Fruhbeck de Burgos - made in 1967 with the New Phil when William Pitz was chorus master . Edith Mathis ,Grace Bumbry , George Shirley and Marius Rintzler ?

I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that Klemperer was intended to conduct it but was ill - that may be memory playing tricks though .

Fruhbeck de Burgos was a very good conductor of choral works IMO - the classic Elijah with Janet Baker and Haydn's Creation in particular . He even made a good case for one of my bete noire works - Carmina Burana .

I am very fond of this performance - although not my go to Requiem which is Gardiner it has a real devotional quality too it and some lovely singing from the chorus and soloists.I see Gramophone when reissued in 1983 thought it a touch theatrical and Verdian !