Mozart_ Requiem

Beethoven called Mozart's Requiem "wild and terrible", and that's what we get in Harnoncourt's new recording. Ominous dread hangs from every note of the dark opening measures, the Rex tremendae and Confutatis are driven with terrifying strength, and the supplications of the Lacrimosa, with their weeping stabbings of the orchestra, are freighted with emotional power. The Tuba mirum duet of bass soloist and trombone has a beauty almost never achieved in other readings. Nor does Harnoncourt overstep the stylistic boundaries of this classical-era work; rather, the intensity is heightened for being in the idiom of its time.

Sir Colin Davis, R.I.P., leads the London Orchestras (LSO–BBC) in performances given in February 1971 for the K.317 and 427, and in September 1967 for the K.626 Requiem. Both Helen Donth, soprano and tenor Ryland Davies sing in all here works and the choirs are the Alldis and LSO Chorus. Davis, of course, conducts the entire project in a raversal of the major liturgical works by the composer, for Philips.