Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)

1) Requiem, K.626 Robert Shaw conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in this Telarc recording, Arleen Auger (Soprano), Delores Ziegler (Mezzo-Soprano), Jerry Hadley (Tenor), Tom Krause (Bass). Now this piece has an interesting history. Early in the summer of 1791 a 'grey messenger' visited Mozart and offered him 50 ducats as the first half of a commission to compose a Requiem. Mozart being in need of money accepted the commission, but his depression and poor health caused him to look at this odd visitation with some morbidity, sometimes causing him to think that the 'grey visitor' was an emissary of Death. In truth, the messenger was an agent for Count Walsegg-Stuppach, who demanded secrecy because he intended to perform the Requiem in memory of his wife and wished to pass it off as his own composition. Interrupted by other responsibilities (The Magic Flute, a clarinet concerto, La Clemenza di Tito premiere in Prague), he worked on it in three stages. His wife Constanze took the score away from him in mid-October for fear it was ruining his precarious health: Mozart began to be obsessed that he was writing the work in preparation for his own death. He even raved of having poisoned himself (from which arose the legend that his rival Salieri had in fact poisoned him, a tale that has been disproven thoroughly but keeps coming up). In November during a lucid spell, Mozart returned to the score and even appeared to direct a performance of his Little Masonic Cantata. He allegedly discussed his plans and sketches of the Requiem with his student Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who had recently assisted him in finishing La Clemenza di Tito by composing all the recitatives. Late-November/early-December, Mozart gathered with some friends to sing as a quartet through some of the vocal parts of the unfinished Requiem, Mozart singing the alto line. December 3rd, he felt well enough to talk of getting up, but the next day he took a turn for the worst. A priest administered Last Rites, a doctor showed up long enough to order cold poultices placed on Mozart's feverish forehead. The composer lost consciousness and died an hour after midnight on December 5th, eight weeks short of his 36th birthday.
Constanze's first concern was that the main frame of the Requiem be completed, she needing the remainder of the commission fee feared that if the work were not completed, she would have to return the portion that was already spent. At the time of his death, Mozart had completed only the Introit in full score, with complete orchestration, but a good part of the Kyrie had been finished and he'd drafted most of the Dies irae and the Offertorium. The widow approached Joseph Eybler, who completed the orchestration of the parts that had been drafted, placing his additions directly onto Mozart's manuscript. He did not compose the music for the end of the Lacrimosa and the rest of the work, feeling that he could not equal Mozart. Constanze approached other composers to undertake the work, but all refused, and she was forced to settle with Sussmayr, who used Mozart's sketches for the remainder of the work and what oral comments he'd heard from the composer. (However, since he didn't begin working on it for two months after Mozart's death, his memory may not have been accurate.)
Sussmayr wrote out the entire score and passed it on to Count Wallsegg's agent. The Count arranged for the first performance of 'his' Requiem in the new monastic church at Wiener Neustadt on December 14, 1793. By the time the Requiem was finally published as Mozart's seven years later, rumors had long circulated about the complicity of other composers in its completion. At the request of publishers Breitkopf and Hartel, Sussmayr described his role, explaining that everything from the verse 'judicandus homo reus' (the third line of the Lacrimosa) was his own, although he had repeated Mozart's Kyrie fugue in the closing Communion to give the work greater uniformity. The degree to which Sussmayr made use of Mozart's sketches for the later movements will remain a mystery as Constanze seems to have destroyed what sketches existed in order to maintain the fiction that Mozart had actually completed the Requiem himself.
With consideration to the fact that Mozart travelled in musical circles, it is questionable whether Sussmayr had any 'special' information regarding the work that was not available to Mozart's musician friends. It was Sussmayr's labors on behalf of his teacher that have made it possible for this work to come to us to hear Mozart's last musical composition, but over the years criticism of musical flaws in Sussmayr's completion have led to revised orchestrations by noted conductors such as Richard Strauss to correct obvious errors or clumsy part-writing. During the 1950's such criticism of Sussmayr's work began to predominate discussions of the Requiem, leading to different versions.
Franz Beyer, a Bavarian scholar, agreed that Sussmayr had access to information from the composer that is no longer available to us, prepared an edition in the 1970's that aimed to correct Sussmayr's obvious errors and also approach Mozart's orchestral style (as established by carefully studying his other works, particularly his liturgical compositions and the completed Introitus for the Requiem, which indicated the type and special color of the scoring Mozart intended for the work). This recording is Beyer's orchestration. It allows us to hear more of Mozart and less of Sussmayr in the score.


2) Great Symphonies Janos Sandor conducts the London Philharmonic orchestra in a performance of the Symphony No. 41 in C major (Jupiter) KV 551, and Vilmos Tatrai conducts the Hungarian Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor KV 550. No controversies surround these fine works. I just plain enjoy listening to them. As an added bonus, after the second symphony there's a cut of the London Philharmonic conducted by Janos Sandor performing the Overture to The Magic Flute KV 620. Not bad for a very inexpensive CD.

3) Vesperae Solennes de Confessore K.339, Adagios and Fugues (after Bach), Lauretanische Litanei K.109 In the Vienna Master Series (Pilz Compact Disc out of Kranzberg, Germany). Figuralchor und Bach-Orchester Stuttgart conducted by H. Rilling (Vesperae), Bell'Arte Ensemble (Adagios), and Tolzer Knabenchor conducted by R. Reinhardt (Litanei). If the different performers for these works make this album look like a hodgepodge... Well, again, another album I like, and it flows beautifully from one piece to the next. This was another really inexpensive CD.

4) Symphonie Nr. 35 (Haffner) und nr. 38 (Prager) Yet another inexpensive CD, the Mozart Festival Orchestra conducted by Alberto Lizzio performs these two symphonies very nicely. On the Classical Digital label (Pilz again out of Kranzberg, Germany).


5) Marsch in C-Dur KV214, Marsch in D-Dur KV215, Hornkonzert Nr. 2 Es-Dur KV417, Hornkonzert Nr. 4 Es-Dur KV495, Cosi fan tutte KV 588 Yet another Classic Digital recording, different performers, all flowing beautifully through the CD. Camerata Romana conducted by Eugen Duvier performs the Marches, the Philharmonia Slavonica conducted by Henry Adolph, with Josef Dokupil on horn, perform the Horn Concertos, and Alfred Scholz conducts theLondon Festival Orchestra for the Overture Cosi fan tutte.



I'll add more as I find enough information to give a decent listing. I listen to more than I have in my cd collection, and by no means own cd's of all my favorite pieces.

Copyright 1998, kye@icsi.net

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