Search - Andreas Delfs, Anton Armstrong, Eric Owen :: Mozart / Sussmayr: Requiems

Two Requiems For The Price Of One

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 06/07/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his pupil and colleague Franz Xaver Sussmayr are inextricably linked in the history of music. It was Sussmayr, after all, who, at the suggestion of Mozart's widow Costanze, helped complete her husband's immortal D Minor Requiem following his tragic and untimely demise in 1791, leading to endless controversies as to just how much of that work was Mozart's and how much of it was really Sussmayr's. And it was only a short few years after that that Sussmayr did his own setting of the Requiem (this time in German, as opposed to the Latin text of other Requiems), which for more than two centuries has remained in the shadows of all other settings, not the least of all Mozart's.



But this recording by an all-star vocal quartet, including Jennifer Larmore, the St. Olaf Choir (prepared by Anton Armstrong), and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Andreas Delfs, not only shows the continuing power of the Mozart Requiem, with somewhat reduced orchestral forces, but also makes the case that Sussmayr's own German setting, which runs just under 20 minutes in length, is a work in need of some re-exploration. If Delfs' interpretation of the Mozart Requiem lacks the fire-and-brimstone of others, it nevertheless retains the poignancy that Mozart sought out, particularly in the famous Lachrymosa passage. And as there seem to be no other recordings of Sussmayr's setting, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's performance of it may have set a standard for all others to follow.



A hugely intriguing pairing of two composers with a history, and two Requiem settings that are as impressive as any of their type."