The catalogue is filled
to the point of bursting with recordings
of Mozart’s swansong, the unfinished
Requiem, so do we really need
another one? Well, yes if the new one
can add something significant, for example
present an alternative to the traditional
Süssmayr completions or perform
it in an untraditional way. This is,
to be sure, the Süssmayr version
and it is played on modern instruments,
so why bother? A look at the timing
in the heading might give an answer
– 41:03, that is fast, isn’t
it? I got out a favourite version, Franz
Welser-Möst on EMI, recorded about
15 years ago, and he clocks in at 49:40!
Further back in history Karl Böhm
needed even longer to reach in aeternum,
so here is an approach that might raise
an eyebrow or two. I started the reviewing
session by playing selected movements
from Welser-Möst’s recording and
everything felt so right: no long-windedness
but a healthy forward flow, finely contrasted
with the dramatic sections given their
due, secure singing from the London
Philharmonic Choir and a line-up of
renowned soloists with Felicity Lott
in her most silvery vein. Could this
really be bettered, provided you could
live without period instruments?
When I switched over
to the new Naxos it was obvious from
the first bars that this was going to
be something quite different. Speeds
were even more flowing than Welser-Möst’s
but, more important, the actual sound
and the articulation of the music placed
it in a totally different world. The
Leipzig orchestra play on modern instruments
but they have adopted much of the period
movement’s way of playing with less
vibrato, less legato than the LPO strings
and overall sharper contours – it’s
like the difference between a charcoal
drawing and the needle-point lines of
an etching, i.e. the LPO seem to engage
the full string body with its fatter
sound while in Leipzig it’s a much slimmer
body. One could also put it that the
two orchestras are on either side of
the year 1800. The differences between
the choirs are along the same lines.
The sizeable LPO singers ring out magnificently
in the big outbursts and are wonderfully
silken in pianissimo; the GewandhausKammerchor
produce a leaner sound but are still
impressive at the dramatic highpoints,
although they can’t quite measure up
with the Londoners for sheer power in,
for example, Dies irae. The Leipzig
performance is agile, rhythmically incisive,
almost dancing where the LPO is more
traditionally solemn. And maybe that
is the crucial word, since solemnity
is the core of this work, and seeing
it as a religious work, which it certainly
is, Welser-Möst may have a point
or two at his advantage, but as a fresh
approach to what is after all a standard
choral work, Schuldt-Jensen is hard
to beat on musical grounds.
Taking the soloists
into account complicates matters further,
since Welser-Möst has a stellar
line-up as set against a young and on
the whole lesser-known quartet. Lott
is definitely the better of the two
sopranos – traditionally speaking, Miriam
Allan has a thinner voice with almost
boy-treble qualities that take some
time getting used to and she isn’t always
as secure as Felicity Lott. The other
three has nothing to fear, though: Anne
Buter sings a wonderful solo in Benedictus
and Marcus Ullmann’s light lyrical tenor
is more in tune with the music than
Keith Lewis’s more heroic tones. Willard
White is of course his authoritative
self but Martin Snell is less strained
and his lowest notes are actually more
sonorous. I shall indeed be interested
to hear more of him.
The two fillers on
the Naxos disc are worth having: Inter
natos mulierum a lively piece where
the young Mozart makes clever use of
the three trombones, Misericordias
Domini a darker, more mature composition.
But of course it is the Requiem
that is the selling-point and I hope
I have made clear its characteristics.
Playing and singing are of the highest
order and Schuldt-Jensen’s reading really
made me listen to the music with new
ears. The sound is good, not too reverberant,
and Keith Anderson’s liner-notes are,
as usual, excellent. We even get the
sung texts with English translations.
As an extra bonus Naxos
enclose a sampler disc, "Grand
Choral Classics", with excerpts
from their back catalogue. Several of
these are quite long pieces and everything
is well recorded and performed. The
reason for this "extra" is
Naxos’ celebrating their first 18 years,
but the offer is valid only for a limited
period. Still, with bonus disc or not,
this is an enticing proposition. Lively,
joie de vivre 18th
century as set against Welser-Möst’s
more dramatic, more solemn but still
extremely vital 19th century.
At present I am biased towards Naxos
but my recommendation is: buy both.
The Welser-Möst is also at budget
price on EMI Encore.
Göran Forsling
Miriam Allan (soprano), Anne Buter (mezzo),
Marcus Ullmann (tenor), Martin Snell (bass), GewandhausKammerchor,
Leipziger Kammerorchester/Morten Schuldt-Jensen
