Customer Reviews

Mozart: Requiem

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After studying several Mozart-Requiem performances I realized that this one is the most inspired and the closest to the Mozart rithym and sensibility. Better performed even than others directed also by Herbert v. Karajan. You can listen to other Mozart-Requiem versions, but once you listen to this one, you will not want another!

This Requiem not only is one of the greatest of all choral songs, but the quality of this CD I found to be better than any other. An example of it's quality can be found in the Sequenzia: Rex Tremendae. Many of the recordings of this section have made the brass instruments sound warped and tin-like. This recording makes them into a smooth harmonizing bass-line that allows for the violins to send shivers down your spine with Mozart and Süssmayr's glorious song of death. Also in the Offertorium the section of "Quam Olim Abrahae" is one of the best I have heard for the same reasons that the Rex Tremendae is. The only thing I would say is bad about this album is that poor Wolfgang Meyer didn't play the organ loud enough for me to enjoy it. I have heard at least 35 different versions of the Mozart's Requiem currently and this is the one that I prefer the most to hear.

I can't claim to have heard as many version of Mozart's requiem as others writing here. I have this one, Herreweghe's version with the sublime Sibylla Rubens and the always-interesting Ian Bostridge. And I have Zukerman's version on SONY with the divine Arleen Auger. I'm still deciding which I like best, but I know this von Karajan recording is my least favorite.

Don't get me wrong. This Requiem seems nice enough. It's definitely of the "thrilling" variety--lots of pow and majesty. Makes you more in awe of death: if fear is a spiritual emotion, this fearful version is very spiritual indeed.

But it does seem bent on wowing you. And it has other flaws. I love soprano Wilma Lipp as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, but her intonation here is truly strange. It calls my attention and takes it away from the music. Anton Dermota and Walter Berry were two of the best singers of the period, but I can't say they do notable work here.

To my mind the digital remastering is just fine. You certainly can't tell that the recording's as old as it is, although it may be too squeaky clean on the same account.

I went out of my way to find this recording--for von Karajan, Dermota and Lipp. But in the end I was underwhelmed.

It's a bargain, and it's thrilling, after its own version of Mozart. But ultimately for me it leaves something to be desired.

While in no way do I claim aficionado status in analyzing the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I must say with all honesty that while this probably isn't the best recording of the moribund composer's masterpeice, it certainly warrants being the most worthy for the price.
Undoubtedly, this music is first rate, and Karajan's phrasing is poignantly and effectively executed -- which is so crucial for animating these types of "sepulchral" masses. What I look for in grand scale choral music is an in-your-face experience with the voices and instumentalists. Karajan usually delivers this, and very rarely do I find myself jonesing for more of this or more of that.
In this case, I saw the CD, saw the name of the conducter...and then I saw the meager price. I couldn't resist.
And I haven't had any regrets. This is coming from a man who is extremely finicky when it comes to conducters and philharmonias. Not just any lame orchestra will do, and just not any inept soloist will do. When it comes to Bach, I am even more meticulous, and rightly so -- put the wrong harpsichordist or soprano on the platform and you have a tremendous bore.
Mozart has more leeway, I believe. A poor rendition of a Mozart composition is more apt to anger than bore. It angers me to realize just how much more powerful and potentially engrossing the music could be.
I have found that with Mozart symphonies, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin fit the bill nicely. I've also found that Herbert Von Karajan can fire up the concert hall just as well. In either case, they both put the music in your face -- which is right where it needs to be.
You can't go wrong with this purchase: Mozart's Requiem conducted by HVK leading the Berlin Phil on a Deutsche Gramm label. ...

...one of the most beautiful pieces of music and recordings of it that I've ever heard.

I bought this CD and I must say it is a really powerful performance in terms of the scale of the chorus used here. This is most definitely not your historically correct recordings. Off course we know this is to be expected from Karajan. I am sure the forces here in terms of the chorus are much more than would be expected in a historically correct "Gardiner" requiem, but the power of this recording can't be denied. Although Herbert Von Karajan does not bring the delicate touch you would expect in this work, you can feel the dramatic impact, like in the "Kyrie". The soloists perform a beautiful "Tuba mirum" The sheer power, scale and force of the chorus lashes out at you sucking you into the feel of this requiem. In the "Rex tremendae" Herbert goes for the "I will blow your brains out approach today before you are done with listening to this" and it works. The "Lacrimosa" is solidly solemn and dramatic at the same time. The "Santcus" feels like you want to get up move that booty of yours, and shake it hard. In a odd sort of way you forget this is a requiem, rather the interpretation of the whole work makes you celebrate death and makes you in awe of the chorus. It's like you feel "We should have had more dead people, so that we could have more massive requiems" like this one. Look if you are looking for the delicate and historically correct Mozart requiem, look somewhere else but the opening of the "Rex Tremendae" with that massive chorus screaming, you can't be not moved or atleast you can't be not shocked unless you are robot. You can really feel like this is Mozart like you never expected. The "Domine Deus" is springy and solid. I know in my heart that Mozart is more delicate, and I know that Herbert just went for the "mass attack" approach on this whole work but it's still a powerful interpretation. So you loose some of the poignancy and some of the heart felt touches, but Herbert substitutes it with in-your face, forces with strong soloists who sing their hearts out.The Vienna Singeverin are forceful and spot on and are a very important part of the power of this peformance.

I am not a great fan of Herbert Von Karajan but I could not deny the power of this work. Herbert takes this one at slightly slower speed than the other recordings that I have listened to and this is to gain this weighty, solemn and strong sound. Herbert wants to create this into an occasion like a bruckner symphony, or like a wagner opera. The slower speed works with the weighty orchestra and excessive chorus and this togther with the recording in a church gives you a dramatic sonic account. The recording feels like you are in the concert hall, because of the natural echoes in the church. But approach this one with the knowledge that this is a slightly bombastic, and super aggrandized account as rightly pointed out in the other reviews (hence not 5 stars). I always like to listen to several versions of the same work, even if the version is not a historically correct one. If the peformance moves me, I just forget about the historical correctness of the instruments, the forces and the slight changes to the nuances of the score. That's the fun in listening to different versions of the same work, to get the picture of the work that each conductor sees through his mind's eye. Die hard anti-karajan guys will anyway avoid this. I am myself not a karajn person, I for eg don't feel the Beethoven in his Beethoven cycle that I own, I felt like he ate up half the delicate nuances on which a Beethoven symphony hinges and the brassy digital recordings of all of Beethoven symphony take away the warmth of the Beethoven sound making it sound more like star wars. But I did like this requiem by him. This may not serve as your Requiem of first choice but it would be nice to have this as an alternative version after hearing the soft touching ones. You may want this brutal-massive forces version just to see what Mozart sounds like if the composer is made to sound a bit like Bruckner. So I have cautioned the purists. It's nice to get out of line sometimes and break the rules, so c'mon get out of your shells and listen to this one, it's worth the price. If Mozart is getting audio streaming in heaven of the DG catalogue, Mozart himself would be amused and tickled to hear his music made to sound so extravagantly fierce

...offourse once in a while he would stomp his wig in anger and jump up and down screaming expletives for what HVK did to his music ;-)


regards, Vikram

I don't have much to say because what else can be said about Mozart and his masterpiece. All I have to say is that you need this and you need it now. If you live in a big city find the highest building you can, go to the top of it, and blast this one. If you live in the country, get in the car in a major thunderstorm, pump up the volume, and get ready to be exceeding the speed limit. If you want to get some sense of what it must feel like to be a god, then here is your answer.

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-626-Wilma-Lipp/dp/B00005MJ17/ref=sr_1_26?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1327216204&sr=1-26

That link will take you to the 'originals' remastering. I find that the deeper strings are clarified, bringing out more bass as well as removing a layer of sonic murk.

Frankly, the historiographical mongering that is fashionable nowadays is for small people. It is fashionable now because our age is one of enthused mediocrity, one which loves 'correctness' of all sorts. The problem with the HIP-sters is that they never think about what constitutes 'correctness', and because of their vehemence they soon arrive at a historiographical justification and of course never question what historiography itself is. From my own orientation, the music of the Germanic peoples should sound godlike, especially a Death Mass with as terrifying a nature as Mozart's Requiem. Karajan understood that, as did all the great conductors, that is, all the conductors who had long been active by the time of the war. HIP-sterism's zingy strings and gutless ensembles be damned, along with its English doltishness.

Actually, the size of the choral forces do not render the Requiem's language unintelligible. All is audible, especially in the remastering.

I currently own 6 versions of Mozart's Requiem, and I'll review them here.

1. My current favorite is Bohm's: Mozart: Requiem. It possesses all the virtues of Karajan or Bernstein's, with the recording quality enjoyed by Abbado's. Highly recommended. Back-story: I though six versions were enough; then a friend criticized this recording, saying, "Bohm conducts Mozart as if he were Brahms." Well, that, I thought, is exactly the how I like it! If you don't, well, then skip this one, as well as the Bernstein and the Karajan.

2. My former favorite was Bernstein's: Mozart - Requiem / McLaughlin, M. Ewing, Hauptmann, Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bernstein. (It is also availabe in a box set of Bernstein's recordings of Mozart, which I'd heartily recommend to anyone: Mozart: The late Symphonies; Great Mass in C minor; Requiem [Box Set].) I cannot say that this is perfect, but it is the way I like to hear the Requiem: slow, stately, and solemn. I don't think anyone excited about the principles of period performance is going to like it, but I believe if Mozart had the resources available to a modern orchestra, he'd want to hear something like this.

3. About 15 years ago I decided to learn about classical music - not because I actually enjoyed it, but because I wanted to be a cultural person. One of the first recordings that I genuinely loved was Karajan's Mozart: Requiem. I actually prefer the music here to Bernstein's: it is even more beautiful and moving. It hurts me to subordinate this to anything, but unfortunately this recording is older and fuzzier than Bernstein's. The individual singing parts and instrumental lines are much clearer in the Bernstein. If you have a decent modern stereo system, or fancy headphones, you would want to hear the Bernstein at least occasionally for its clarity. Also, to be fair to Bernstein, there are moments where I prefer his version. (Be careful. If you live abroad this recording is also available with a Byzantine icon on the cover. But there is at least one other recording by Karajan of Mozart's Requiem, which is not the same as this one, and I don't own. Pay attention to the names of the soloists and you'll be fine. DG seems dedicated to fooling people into purchasing multiple editions of the same recording.)

4. Abbado: Mozart - Requiem / Mattila, Mingardo, Schade, Terfel, Berlin Phil., Abbado This recording is by far the most clear. If you want to hear the distinct parts, the instrumentation, as if you were standing on the podium, this is the recording for you. It is played faster than I like, but it retains most of the emotional power. Comparing this recording to Bernstein's is very instructive: I'm sure Abbado took fewer liberties, and purists will prefer this one.

5. In Brilliant Classic's Mozart Edition: Complete Works (170 CD Box Set), it is conducted by Nicol Matt and performed by various Dutch artists. The music is not recorded as well as the Bernstein or Abbado above, and it is taken too fast. Yet I still enjoy listening to this one for contrast.

6. Gardiner: Mozart: Requiem / Bonney, von Otter, Blochwitz, W. White, Gardiner. This is a recording only a mother - or a very serious enthusiast of period performance - could love. It is played far too fast, the instrumentation is much too thin. I cannot enjoy this, and I don't think I've sat all the way through it more than twice. (Notice that the enthusiastic reviewers of this one talk about "accuracy" and "authenticity" and so on rather than "beauty" or "power." Well, that's their thing, and I'm glad they have a recording to love. But it doesn't work for me.)

I hope to consider more as my collection grows. If you have a favorite or one that you think I'd like, please let me know in the comments.

I have listened a good deal to this recording and can simply say Karajan has the key to the requiem in D minor. His conducting and control of the flow and majesty of this piece are never in question...in spite of the period instrument approach he has a sound architechtural understanding of this mighty work.

In the Dis Irae we are really given bite and push! I think this recording is the sum of the merits Karajan achieves. Maybe not altogether polished and as perfect as some but very musically thought out and grave and sombre as a Requiem Mass should be!

Bravo Maestro Karajan!!!