Search - Mozart, Bogard, Murray :: Requiem K.626

Outstanding performance, just OK sound

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 06/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This recording of the Mozart Requiem, made in 1975 for Vanguard, is an outstanding performance of the music, indeed one of the very greatest I have ever heard. Even though tenor Richard Lewis was a bit beyond his prime at this time, he is certainly more than adequate for his role, and the other singers-soprano Carole Board, mezzo Ann Murray, and bass Michael Rippon-are all at the top of their game, giving performances which are both musically accurate and deeply felt.



More importantly, conductor Johannes Somary-a Vanguard stalwart whose work for the company began in the early 1960s-imparts to this music a feeling of Romantic drama tempered with Classical integrity. The Amor Artis Chorale, led by the estimable John McCarthy, sings with precision and an almost Baroque feeling of exactness in counterpoint. Raymond Leppard's English Chamber Orchestra, apparently borrowed for this session, delivers its usual impassioned performance.



The only drawback is the sound quality. Even for 1975, this is not state-of-the-art sonics; they are curiously boxy and muffled in tuttis, not, perhaps, as congested as Toscanini's Studio 8-H recordings, but far from the spaciousness one has come to expect in the digital age; and even 24-bit digital remastering has not helped to "open up" the sound.



Still, it is not BAD sound by any means. It is similar to the RAI recordings of the late 1960s and early 1970s issued on Opera d'Oro (Les Troyens, Agnese di Hohenstaufen, Benvenuto Cellini)-serviceable if not state-of-the-art. And, after all, it is the performance, not the sound, that should really matter to the sensitive listener. I have not heard another Mozart Requiem to equal this one, not even the highly-prized recordings by Beecham or Harnoncourt, though they certainly do have their points. Very, very highly recommended.

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