Search - Scottish Chamber Orchestra :: Mozart: Requiem; Adagio & Fugue [Stereo/Multichannel]

This is the one to own!

Luis Flores | Sunny California | 08/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must begin by saying that I respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer. This version must be the best version I have ever heard of Mozart's Requiem. I know that may not mean much to a person reading this review. To better clarify what I mean here is my background and history of Requiem searching. I adore Mozart's works. I own the Complete Mozart Edition and all the works not included in the Complete Mozart Edition including some of Mozart's arrangements of works by other composers. I also own over 26 versions of Mozart's requiem including different editions (Original Fragments, Beyer, Maunder, etc). I am also a hi-fi fan and enjoy listening to classical music through my Senn HD-650 headphones and Grado RS-1 headphones and, in the day time, through my JBL 4311 studio monitor speakers which is backed up by my McIntosh stereo system.



Had it not been for this recording I would have kept on buying more versions of Mozart's Requiem. The completion itself (done by Robert Levin) is simply amazing and sounds more "Mozartean" than any other edition I have EVER heard. The reintegrated and completed Amen fugue is astounding. The Kryrie is sublime and the Dies Irae is terrifying. Mackerras, in my humble opinion, pulled off the best recording of Mozart's requiem up until now. The sound throughout the recording never falls below stupendous and the quality of the artists themselves is beyond compare. It is simply a magical recording. I own the SACD/Hybrid version of this recording only because I gave my CD copy to a friend as a gift because he concurred that this was by far the best version he had heard as well. I often use this recording as a Demo Disc to test other people's gear at Hi-Fi conventions and everyone there goes home with the sole intent of purchasing this recording as well. 100's of Hi-Fi lovers can't be wrong, much less 100's of classical music lovers.



I know I have not described this recording in great detail but I am not a musicologist...only a lover of great music and great recordings. I highly recommend this recording as I firmly believe that this disc truly speaks for itself. Please do not delay and buy this as soon as possible. Happy listening.

"

Fantastic! A choral milestone! Bravo Mackerras!

todrisceoil | Cork, Ireland | 01/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My god, I have never heard such a performance in all my life!
Firstly, the completion solves almost all of the problems that have been bugging me about the Sussmayr completion. Levin develops the Hosanna and Amen fugues as if he had Wolfgang himself directing him! The orchestration is immaculate, the Sanctus, benedictus and agnus dei have all the kinks worked out, and the Cum sanctis tuis fugue has been retexted (properly!). I feel that Levin's version of the Amen fugue, which does not modulate, is the most authentic of all of them. His reason for the non-modulation is very well argued, and the effect is comparatively better than the Druce and Maunder versions. My one quibble with the completion is that, for me, the orchestration in the second part of the Domine Jesu, just before the fugue, is a little too conservative.

The chorus on this recording have the most amazing diction of all! Totally sweet when the phrases end in "s!" Mackerras' tempi are perfect, and the orchestra play with great technical mastery, but with an overall musicality that other renderings, that of Karajan among others, lack. the recording ends with a delightful rendering of the Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K.546, which is a welcome conclusion to Mozart's tour de force of counterpoint. My advice to you is this:
Scrap Sussmayer, get rid of Robbins-Landon, ditch Druce and maul Maunder!
B U Y T H I S R E C O R D I N G ! ! !
Do anything you can to get it!"

Mozart's Requiem as I always wanted to hear it.

Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabadoo | Boston, MA USA | 09/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since I first heard the Requiem, I have always felt that the ending movements lacked the power of the opening movements. This is for obvious reasons, most notably that Sussmayr completed much of the final movements, and supposedly composed "from scratch" the Sanctus and the Benedictus. For this reason, I always found the last few movements aggravating to listen to; I would find myself wondering "what if Mozart had lived to finish this movement? What would the Hosanna fugue have sounded like? What would he have done with the Sanctus (and the most obviously non-Mozartean techniques in the work were discarded?")

Well, if you have found yourself wondering "what if", it is definitely worth hearing this recording. Professor Robert Levin re-interprets much of Sussmayr's completion, often times making outright changes to the scoring and music to give it a more Mozartean feel. Levin apparently modeled many of these changes after the Great Mass in C Minor in terms of construction; and being a huge fan of that great torsoed work as well, the effect is not at all unpleasant. As a lover of all fugues big and small, I highly recommend listening to the 'Amen' fugue at the end of the Lacrymosa (a piece based on a fragment recovered in the 1960's), as well as the fully developed alteration to the 'Hosanna' fugue which aggravated me for all those years prior to this disc. The recording is excellent, with great spatial definition and a perfect recording of the chorus. In particular, the SACD multichannel layer really shines. My only quibble is that the soloists are not the strongest I've heard - it's not that they are bad, they just are a little light. Regardless, this disc is a must-own for die-hard Mozart fans as in my opinion it represents a more honest look at Mozart's greatest work."