Customer Reviews

Mozart - Requiem / Kirkby · Watkinson · Rolfe Johnson · D. Thomas · AAM · Hogwood

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a superb recording, featuring some of the best voices in choral music today. Because Mozart died before he finished the Requiem, there are several versions of the finished piece arranged by students or colleagues of Mozart after his death. This is the only recording I have been able to find of the Maunder version of the Requiem. The more popular version of the Requiem is arranged by Sussmayer, a student of Mozart's, and it's often hard to find anything different. This is a beautiful, moving piece of music and I would highly recommend this recording.

This edition of the Requiem tries to eliminate anything that was not written by the hand of Mozart. Sussymayer, Eybler tamperings are not presented here in the Maunder edition.

This version is an early 80's recording with Christopher Hogwood with the signature "Hogwood" sound. Beautifully recorded and buoyant. I do recommend this version for the fine singing of soprano Emma Kirkby.

Hogwood chooses to use the Maunder edition which substitutes key sections with pieces from other Mozart compositions in an effort to keep the composition as purely Mozart as possible. In doing so, he may have achieved to some degree a more "pure" Mozart authorship, but on the other hand the piece has lost it's overall musical structure and proportion and in this respect it is clearly less "Mozartian".

Still, it is interesting to listen to this version but if I were limited to only one version I would choose the Sussmayr edition and in this regard I recommend the one directed by George Guest and the English Chamber Orchestra with Choir of St. John Cambridge recorded on Chandos.

I'm going to slyly avoid the arguments about the different versions of Mozart's Requiem mass, because the most important thing to me is the quality of the performance: and Hogwood's is the best. While I enjoyed listening to William Christie's recording, and Herreweghe's disc excels in the trumpets and drums department (very crisp), what really stands above on this recording is Emma Kirkby's perfect solo voice. When her voice first rings out, it is the most pure and beautiful I can imagine. Not Figueras on Savall's rendition, nor the soloists for Christie, Herreweghe, and Gardiner, are her equal. Kirkby avoids the trappings of vibrato and other inappropriate colorations, and simply shines through. The AAM plays very well and the boys chorus brings a haunting, gorgeous touch to the Confutatis. This is a recording that should last through the ages as a classic, I hope. We are fortunate that it is still available!

This recording of the famous Death Mass embodies all that Mozart himself would have wanted, powerful raw emotion and celestial reflection. My personal tastes in choral singing includes the traditional all-male chorale, and the effects of such beautiful nuance from mixed choirs make the recording particularly personal. For one, the purity of male trebles in the Requiem offer precise articulation in the fugue sections of Kyrie and Lux Aeterna that in other recordings blur because of the female vibrato. The clarity given to these lines add an element of beauty to the horrific tones instead of just the "elephant trampling" effect of other recordings (I know this because I own 9 different recordings of Requiem, including those that are supposedly 5 star). Another strength of the all-male chorale is the way that transition into more quiet and seductive melodies within larger, fearful movements happens with great ease and haunting effect (the treble melodies of "salve me" and "voca me" are angelically beautiful and perfect). As to other gems of this incredible recording, the interpretation of each movement seems to be just right and viable in producing the specific affectations in the listener. The use of timpani is moderate and effective in bringing out a certain "rawness" in sections like Kyrie and Dies Irae. One of my favorite moments is at the end of the Kyrie and the Lux Aerterna sections. The last chord of these sections is sung as an open fifth amoung the voices, leaving an incredibly profound ambiguity as to the nature of the end of both the piece and of life(this being a death mass) as to whether resolution from the minor key has taken place . The soprano soloist mimics the celestial beauty in the upper register of the boy trebles and brings superb relfection in the solo sections of the first and last movements. The accompaniment moves the recording accurately as a "sea of sound," rising and crashing at the crests and calming as if it were another "organ" of this organism of a recording, acting in conjunction with the chorale but also as its own entity. The blend of everything is superb, the soloists are gorgeous each in their own right, the chorale performs wonderfully, and the selected versions of the Requiem fit perfectly together as what Mozart would have wanted. I am an avid collector of choral music, I have sung in choirs since I was 5, I know the Requiem backwards and forwards, and no other Mozart Requiem recording gives me as much satisfaction.

This was a recording that had to be made. It opens a window on the Wagnerian fug that frequently characterizes renditions of the Requiem. To actually hear Mozart's voiceleading and counterpoint, to hear clearly the debt Mozart owed to Bach and Handel, is a revelation.

The ancient liturgical psalm tone "tonus peregrinus" used by Mozart for the "te decet hymnus" is, in most performances I have heard, crushed under the weight and obscured by the vibrato of the dramatic soprano voice. By contrast, Kirkby's pure, straight voice is the perfect instrument to spin out these delicate filaments of musical prayer.

The other-worldly quality of the Westminster boys' voices gives this rendition a lightness, transparency and transcendence that is noticeably absent from performances by mixed choirs and soloists schooled in the more earthy operatic tradition.

Because this Requiem recording is something of a rarity in its use of a boychoir, it will raise eyebrows in quarters where the nature of the boychoir is perhaps insufficiently appreciated. Surprisingly, no review of this recording that I have read thus far alludes to the ecclesiastical ethos behind this music, especially as regards the use of boys' voices for texts that are admittedly of rather mature content.

Mozart's Requiem is in fact sacred music - the text is drawn from the ritual of the Catholic Church. In Mozart's time, only male voices were permitted in the singing of the ritual music. The appropriateness or otherwise of children singing texts of hellfire and damnation was not an issue. We tend to forget this in today's politically-correct society which, rightly or wrongly, shields the young from such ideas as condemnation, guilt and punishment; thus some of us are disturbed on hearing the Dies Irae sung by boys.

This purports to be an historically accurate performance, and the boy's voice is simply a standard vehicle of the sacred music of 18th-century Austria. Whether the boys comprehend what they are singing is beside the point; how many of the men in this choir can say they understand the mysteries of life and death any better?

Mozart isn't giving us answers, he is leading us in the exploration of these mysteries. True to this spirit, this performance presents us with some compelling question marks.

Of all the different versions of Mozart's Requiem Mass that I've heard, I have to say that this is by far my favorite. Emma Kirkby has one of the most gorgeous voices I've ever heard, and handled her singing of this piece with utmost grace and beauty.

I also loved the fact that this recording was made with the Academy of Ancient Music. In Mozart's time, the instruments they used were in no way what they are now. Everything was more fragile and delicate, and didn't produce the type of sound they are capable of producing today. The use of these period instruments allows the audience to acquire a feel for what listening to this requiem in the late 18th century might have been like. The lack of vibrato by both the players and Emma Kirkby really adds to the piece's authenticity, since vibrato was rarely, if ever used in Mozart's time.

Hogwood does an excellent job of "holding everything together and in place," in the sense that the tempi he uses for each section of the requiem is pretty consistent throughout. With Mozart, a steady beat is almost always used, unless there is an obvious place for ritardando. The music flows amazingly well, and the tone inflections are brought out not only from section to section, but within each section (i.e. in "Confutatis").

The only complaint I have about this recording is the very short, staccato opening to "Rex . . . ". I would have loved to hear more shaping of each note. Considering everything else however, it's easy to let something like that go.

This was a recording that had to be made. It opens a window on the Wagnerian fug that frequently characterizes renditions of the Requiem. To actually hear Mozart's voiceleading and counterpoint, to hear clearly the debt Mozart owed to Bach and Handel, is a revelation.

The ancient liturgical psalm tone "tonus peregrinus" used by Mozart for the "te decet hymnus" is, in most performances I have heard, crushed under the weight and obscured by the vibrato of the dramatic soprano voice. By contrast, Kirkby's pure, straight voice is the perfect instrument to spin out these delicate filaments of musical prayer.

The other-worldly quality of the Westminster boys' voices gives this rendition a lightness, transparency and transcendence that is noticeably absent from performances by mixed choirs and soloists schooled in the more earthy operatic tradition.

Because this Requiem recording is something of a rarity in its use of a boychoir, it will raise eyebrows in quarters where the nature of the boychoir is perhaps insufficiently appreciated. Surprisingly, no review of this recording that I have read thus far alludes to the ecclesiastical ethos behind this music, especially as regards the use of boys' voices for texts that are admittedly of rather mature content.

Mozart's Requiem is in fact sacred music - the text is drawn from the ritual of the Catholic Church. In Mozart's time, only male voices were permitted in the singing of the ritual music. The appropriateness or otherwise of children singing texts of hellfire and damnation was not an issue. We tend to forget this in today's politically-correct society which, rightly or wrongly, shields the young from such ideas as condemnation, guilt and punishment; thus some of us are disturbed on hearing the Dies Irae sung by boys.

This purports to be an historically accurate performance, and the boy's voice is simply a standard vehicle of the sacred music of 18th-century Austria. Whether the boys comprehend what they are singing is beside the point; how many of the men in this choir can say they understand the mysteries of life and death any better?

Mozart isn't giving us answers, he is leading us in the exploration of these mysteries. True to this spirit, this performance presents us with some compelling question marks.

After reading the other reviews of this recording, seeing that the reactions to it were almost all either vehemently opposed to or passionately in awe of it, and noticing that the negative reviews were a bit more convincing than the positive ones, I decided that I had to write a review of my own in an attempt to defend Cristopher Hogwood's rendition from its naysayers.

In short, this recording is a superb example of choral singing at its best. The decision to replace the female singers with a boychoir may have been made in an attempt to be historically accurate, but ends up bringing a haunting shimmer to the ensemble that makes the polyphonic sections dance with crystal clarity, and gives the homophonic ones a well-suited edge that most listeners are not used to hearing.

The soloists, too, are seemingly perfect in their respective roles. Emma Kirkby's celestial Te Decet Hymnus solo is absolutely sparkling with both tenderness and clarity, while the solo quartet's Recordare exemplifies the best sense of ensemble I have ever heard from four individual performers. Every detail, every consonant, every dynamic change is executed with great exactitude by the four soloists, without compromising the smallest hint of emotion.

As for Maunder's reworking of Sussmayr's manuscripts, I can only say that I approve wholeheartedly -- strong words considering that I think very highly of Sussmayr's rendering. Maunder's Lacrimosa may be, perhaps, a bit less ethereal, but his realization of the Amen fugue that Mozart intended to follow is heavenly enough to make up for it. And the changes to the Agnus Dei that one reviewer claimed were so terribly destructive, I didn't even notice.

If I had to name one negative thing about this recording, it might be that Hogwood, perhaps confusing the attempt to be faithful to Mozart's style and intentions with an attempt to be original or different in any way possible, occaisionally tinkered with the traditional tempi of a few movements just a bit too much. The Confutatis and the Hostias, for example, are each a tiny bit too fast for my taste, while the extremely staccato articulation of the Rex Tremendae is perhaps untrue to the score. Other than that, this recording is flawless.

I checked out this version from the library one day, and now I don't like any other recording! The quality of the music is unique. As far as I can tell (the notes don't explain this), the choristers from Westminster Cathedral sing both soprano and alto, a move unusual in English choirs. The Academy of Ancient Music's tenors and bases sing the other parts. I don't know why they didn't use the adult singers from Westminster for this, but I'm glad they didn't.

Whether it's because half the boys are (possibly) singing a part they aren't used to, or because this group of people don't usually sing together, or maybe its just the nature of the recording (1983), the quality of the singing is much more energetic and raw than the operatic versions out there. Don't get me wrong, everyone sings the right notes and the diction is quite crisp (considering the number of lines that end in "s", this is a real blessing). The pacing is even, without big melodramatic pauses in music that, let's face it, is over-wraught enough on its own.

I find this a refreshing change from the more glutenous recordings out there. If, however, you are looking for a homogenized blend of voices, and more "syrupy" sound quality, this recording is not for you. The singers often sound almost frightened themselves, which isn't all that surprising; I can't be the only person that finds it vaguely disturbing that children as young as 8 are singing about being flung into pits of hell where flames engulf them...

At any rate, I do truely enjoy this recording. Even if you are used to a very different Reuqiem, you should get this as a foil for all the other versions out there.

There are many serious points to consider before buying such a deep and profound work as Mozart's Requiem. It's important to know exactly what you want, or you may be disappointed. However, keep an open mind and be prepare for some surprises. I will now attempt to tell you how this particular recording fulfilled and disappointed my expectations.

Being a singer myself, the first things I consider when I listen to a recording are the soloists, starting with soprano. Emma Kirkby is a fantastic singer who sings with very little vibrato. The question is, do you care more about authenticity or hearing it the way you've always heard it. Most singers now sing with alot of vibrato, whereas most singers in Mozart's day did not. On the other hand, I believe that the alto, Carolyn Watkinson, uses entirely too much vibrato, destroying both the authenticity and the overall beauty. The tenor is well-trained, but a bit too dramatic for sacred works. A Requiem is not an opera. The bass is good overall, though a bit "thick" and "heavy" sounding for my taste. In other words, too much vibrato again.

The next thing I would consider is the choir. The main question here seems to be is a boychoir what you want for this work? In my opinion, Hogwood did well to use a boychoir for something bright, like Handel's Messiah, but a boychoir seems a bit too bright for the dark drama of the Requiem. On the other hand, the sound is crisp and clear and every note distinct.

I don't claim to be an expert on instrumentalists, so I'll now concentrate on the conductor himself. Overall, I thought he did an excellent job, but sometimes there seemed to be a lack of the drama that is present in other recordings. I believe that the orchestra occasionally lacks dynamic contrast or well-placed accents. There's very little swell in some songs. The part that especially bothered me was the "Rex tremendae", which was taken much too fast. The tremendous and fearful majesty was almost entirely absent. The words "salva me" did not convey the piteous cries of a sinner.

As for the authenticity of the piece, I appreciate Hogwood's efforts to restore Mozart's genius to the piece. I was never completely satisfied with the parts written by Sussmayr and I have not missed them at all in this recording. And the "Amen", added from one of Mozart's other masses, is absolutely beautiful and fits in very well with the Requiem, especially since it is very Baroque.

Well, I won't tell you whether to buy it or not, I just hope I have helped to answer some of the questions you may have had about the performance. I hope you enjoy it.