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

[sidneyfox]

The CD I bought quite some time ago is the Herbert Von Karajan Jose can Sam and Anna tomowa Sintow. I think its a very good performance indeed. By coincidence I listened to it last week.

[jonfan]

NK did an excellent, considered BAL which many here have acknowledged is a tricky brief. I'm glad he came down with a Süssmayr/Mozart version in the end as that IS the 'Mozart Requiem'. The other versions all have merit and interest but in the end the first version must be the one as Süssmayr knew the composer's thoughts first hand, and he makes a jolly good fist of the completion which is very satisfying. Bach was very keen to have definitive versions of his major works to hand on to posterity, regardless of contemporary performance demands. The Passions and B Minor Mass come to mind. Mendelssohn's Italian and Schumann's 4th Symphonies have in the public domain other complete versions but in the end the composers' final, or published, version is the essence of the piece.
I used to enjoy the big choral versions, especially the Davis of 1967 with BBC forces, but the authentic movement wins out every time for me. I've gone off Gardiner as I feel the composer is at the service of the conductor instead of the opposite. [I'm admittedly biased after following the various revelations in 'Private Eye' during the past year.] For now I love the Suzuki which has a strong devotional element. This gave his Bach Cantata cycle its distinctive quality from the rest.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[I'm admittedly biased after following the various revelations in 'Private Eye' during the past year.]

Do tell. . .

I only buy P.E. intermittently, though I have every single Private Eye Annual since 1996 (which I think was the first).

[jonfan]

Do tell. . .

I only buy P.E. intermittently, though I have every single Private Eye Annual since 1996 (which I think was the first).

Someone in the Monteverdi Choir drops some juicy tit bits to the 'Music and Musicians' column of PE occasionally; the latest being in the present edition 1412 of 19 February. There is a plan to tour the St Matthew Passion of Bach with the choir singing from memory. It's likely to need about 40 hours preparation and the management of the MC has offered £200 for the task; that is a paltry £5 an hour! Three leading singers have resigned and JEG has threatened instant dismissal to anyone who complains to the MU. Not a happy bunch of singers!!

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, an interesting and impressive survey by NK - all the more so since...



... I don't own a recording of Mozart's Requiem.

At an early stage of my collecting career, I happened to play in the piece twice - the main trombone part, requiring this tenor/bass trombonist to tackle the solo which is very high if you don't have an alto trombone which I didn't All that fugal doubling is very hard too (I listened with sweating palms to the Gardiner extract where the trombones were so prominent - and bloody well played!! ). The experience, inc. the extensive rehearsals and practice, had the effect of putting me off (except for those astonishing opening instrumental phrases). I did acquire the Hogwood on cassette I remember, but never really listened to it.

The Butt version certainly didn't do it for me, based on the extracts played.

Anyone know which version was featured in the introductory extract, played just after AMcG finished speaking? Unless I missed it, NK didn't say. It sounded great!

(You watch - it'll turn out to have been from Butt's recording, and I'll look a fool).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyone know which version was featured in the introductory extract, played just after AMcG finished speaking? Unless I missed it, NK didn't say. It sounded great!

(You watch - it'll turn out to have been from Butt's recording, and I'll look a fool).

IIRC, NK said it was the earlier (1970s) Mariner/ASMF recording. (And I, too, was impressed by it.)

[visualnickmos]

Anyone know which version was featured in the introductory extract, played just after AMcG finished speaking? Unless I missed it, NK didn't say. It sounded great!

(You watch - it'll turn out to have been from Butt's recording, and I'll look a fool).

Hardly likely.

[Pulcinella]

Anyone know which version was featured in the introductory extract, played just after AMcG finished speaking? Unless I missed it, NK didn't say. It sounded great!

(You watch - it'll turn out to have been from Butt's recording, and I'll look a fool).

I think it was Marriner/ASMF, but you might have to LA, or wait for someone else to confirm.

PS: Ferney got there first, as usual!

[Beresford]

I have just heard and seen the Simon Bolivar performance of Mozart's Requiem on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDHw70dZvpo

It seems to have the passion of JEG, without the anger that I have sensed in many of his performances over the last few years.
Is this what Solti and Guilini were like in their prime?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

IIRC, NK said it was the earlier (1970s) Mariner/ASMF recording. (And I, too, was impressed by it.)

Ah, no - my bad: the Mariner extract is illustrated by the opening movement. The source of the "opening" Dies Irae is left unspecified - no doubt to communicate the problematic nature of "authorship" in this work, and not because some fool forgot to mention it.

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks folks! I can feel a message to the programme coming on, to find the answer. It's tweet-time!

[Barbirollians]

V

Yes, an interesting and impressive survey by NK - all the more so since...



... I don't own a recording of Mozart's Requiem.

At an early stage of my collecting career, I happened to play in the piece twice - the main trombone part, requiring this tenor/bass trombonist to tackle the solo which is very high if you don't have an alto trombone which I didn't All that fugal doubling is very hard too (I listened with sweating palms to the Gardiner extract where the trombones were so prominent - and bloody well played!! ). The experience, inc. the extensive rehearsals and practice, had the effect of putting me off (except for those astonishing opening instrumental phrases). I did acquire the Hogwood on cassette I remember, but never really listened to it.

The Butt version certainly didn't do it for me, based on the extracts played.

Anyone know which version was featured in the introductory extract, played just after AMcG finished speaking? Unless I missed it, NK didn't say. It sounded great!

(You watch - it'll turn out to have been from Butt's recording, and I'll look a fool).

I think it was Neville Marriner's first recording . I always wondered why Pinnock and the English Concert did not record it for DG Archiv .

[Nick Armstrong]

I think it was Neville Marriner's first recording.

Thanks, though others seem now to doubt that - are you going on your familiarity with that recording, Barb? Yes, the first named extract played was NM#1 - but I'm talking about the one before, before Sir Nick started speaking, and neither he nor AMcG announced it.

I did enjoy some of the historical titbits (e.g. the removal of a corner of the score! ... visible here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03kbqlz/p03jqz6r )

Also v good to hear that appalling Karajan soloist called 'Shocking, by any standards'... Because it certainly was.

Although I thought it revealing about soloists generally that Margaret Price's lovely performance was called 'miraculous' - she was certainly giving a very beautiful performance of what was written. That this counts as a 'miracle' says a lot about standards generally, it seemed to me




.

[Pulcinella]

I missed the very beginning, so, like ferney, may well be wrong if it was indeed not attributed.
Marriner and the ASMF were the first names I heard.

Let's hope you get a sensible response if you ask, better than the one I've just got from zoverstocks, asking if a CD listed on Amazon.com saying it is posted from the UK can be bought directly/through Amazon.co.uk. I got some guff about barcodes and being able to send it back if it wasn't what I wanted!

[Barbirollians]

Ah it seems I fell into the same trap as fhgl