Haydn – Theresienmesse in B flat Mozart – Requiem in D minor
An anonymous count ordered a Requiem from Mozart through a mysterious intermediary. The payment would have been substantial, but it also served to buy off all Mozart's rights, so that the count could play the new composition on the name day of his deceased wife as if it were his own composition. The story is well known: Mozart died before his Requiem was finished. “I am writing a Requiem for myself”, he sighed in a depressed state to his wife Constanze. After his death she was at a loss, because the Requiem had to be finished: no piece, no money. Joseph Eybler was the first to complete the work. He limited himself to orchestrating the parts of which Mozart had already completed the choral parts plus the orchestral bass. Here and there, orchestral motifs were already present as an idea. Making new notes for the completion of the Lacrimosa (Mozart had reached bar 11) was out of the question for Eybler: out of respect for the great Amadeus. Nor did he compose new music for the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, the missing parts. Eybler returned the order, with new orchestrations. Constanze ended up with Süßmayr and he completed the Requiem with his own orchestration. This version has become world famous, but has musical problems; Musicologists and performers quickly agreed on this. The orchestration, the harmonic progression, the voice leading, parallel fifths between the outer voices… But what is the alternative? Several other completions were made over time, but Süßmayr's held up despite its flaws. Are those new completions any worse than that? No, on the contrary, but choosing Mozart/Süßmayr is a safe, trusted, well-known choice.
The Zeeuws Vocal Ensemble performs the completion of Mozart connoisseur Robert D. Levin, published by Carus in 1991, but with inserted orchestrations by Joseph Eybler: an outright first, which came about after extensive research in collaboration with the Nationalbibliothek Österreich in Vienna.
Nienke Austria, soprano
Esther Kuiper, alto
Francisco Espinoza, tenor
Michiel Meijer, bass
Ars Musica Orchestra
Patrick van der Linden, conductor
