MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Support us financially by purchasing this from

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Miserere in A minor K85 [6:32]
George Frederic HANDEL (1685-1759)
Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline HWV264 [2:17]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Requiem, K626; Ave verum corpus, K618 [49:40]
Genia Kühmeier (soprano)
Elizabeth Kulman (alto)
Julien Behr (tenor)
Charles Dekeyser (bass)
Salzburg Bach Choir
Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski
rec. live, January 2017, Felsenreitschule, Salzburg; Académie équestre nationale de Versailles, director Bartabas
C MAJOR DVD 741808 [59 mins]

This DVD contains the unique image of a troupe of horses dancing to the music of Mozart’s Requiem. Don’t laugh, I’m serious. This is the sort of spectacle that will split its viewers. Some will find it embarrassing and bizarrely comical; others, primarily those who dote on horses—which are of course wonderful creatures—may well find it moving and beautiful.

I have to confess I fall into the former group. The playing and singing of the Requiem is fine, and the skill of the animals and their riders is spectacular. Conductor Marc Minkowski, according to the notes with the DVD, is a lifelong lover of horses.

But do these things add up to an edifying musical, balletic or zoological experience? To my mind, no. My suggestion would be, turn off the picture if possible, and listen to a very decent performance of the music. Or alternatively, buy one of the other fine performances of the work available on DVD, for example Abbado’s splendid one with the Berlin Philharmonic on Euroarts, or, rather more recently, John Eliot Gardiner with the Monteverdi choir and a superb group of soloists in a performance recorded by Philips in Barcelona.

The only other aspect of this disc I can honestly recommend is the inclusion of the fourteen-year-old Mozart’s Miserere K85—archaic in style and supported only by organ—and the solemn orchestral introduction to Handel’s Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline from 1737.

Don’t get me wrong - I love horses, and hugely admire the talent of the equestrians on show here. I just don’t think that they mix with Mozart’s sublime music.

Gwyn Parry-Jones

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing