- Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 -- 5 December 1791)
- Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists
- Choir: Monteverdi Choir
- Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
- Soloists: Barbara Bonney (soprano), Anne Sofie von Otter (contralto), Hans Peter Blochwitz (tenor), Willard White (bass)
- Year of recording: 1990
Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626)
This version is the Süssmayr completion of the Requiem, with the following structure:
00:00 - I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (choir and soprano solo)
04:44 - II. Kyrie eleison (choir)
----- III. Sequentia: (text based on sections of the Dies Irae)
07:15 - Dies irae (choir)
09:01 - Tuba mirum (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass solo)
12:09 - Rex tremendae majestatis (choir)
14:20 - Recordare, Jesu pie (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass solo)
19:02 - Confutatis maledictis (choir)
21:17 - Lacrimosa dies illa (choir)
----- IV. Offertorium:
24:05 - Domine Jesu Christe (choir with solo quartet)
27:38 - Versus: Hostias et preces (choir)
----- V. Sanctus:
31:35 - Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth (choir)
32:58 - Benedictus (solo quartet, then choir)
38:12 - VI. Agnus Dei (choir)
----- VII. Communio:
41:25 - Lux aeterna (soprano solo and choir)
The Requiem was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death on December 5. A completion dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem mass to commemorate the February 14 anniversary of his wife's death.
The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated introit in Mozart's hand, as well as detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence Dies Irae as far as the first nine bars of "Lacrimosa", and the offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost "scraps of paper" for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as his own. Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart's widow Constanze.
A modern contribution to the mythology is Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus (based on Pushkin's play "Mozart and Salieri"), and the subsequent film by Forman, in which a mysterious messenger orders Mozart to write a requiem mass, giving no explanation for the order; Mozart (in the play) then comes to believe that the piece is meant to be the requiem mass for his own funeral.
Many people have tried different completions, but the Süssmayr completion is the most performed, because he was Mozart's pupil and may have had the possibility of receiving instructions from Mozart on how to complete the requiem.
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- Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 -- 5 December 1791)
- Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists
- Choir: Monteverdi Choir
- Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
- Soloists: Barbara Bonney (soprano), Anne Sofie von Otter (contralto), Hans Peter Blochwitz (tenor), Willard White (bass)
- Year of recording: 1990
Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626)
This version is the Süssmayr completion of the Requiem, with the following structure:
00:00 - I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (choir and soprano solo)
04:44 - II. Kyrie eleison (choir)
----- III. Sequentia: (text based on sections of the Dies Irae)
07:15 - Dies irae (choir)
09:01 - Tuba mirum (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass solo)
12:09 - Rex tremendae majestatis (choir)
14:20 - Recordare, Jesu pie (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass solo)
19:02 - Confutatis maledictis (choir)
21:17 - Lacrimosa dies illa (choir)
----- IV. Offertorium:
24:05 - Domine Jesu Christe (choir with solo quartet)
27:38 - Versus: Hostias et preces (choir)
----- V. Sanctus:
31:35 - Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth (choir)
32:58 - Benedictus (solo quartet, then choir)
38:12 - VI. Agnus Dei (choir)
----- VII. Communio:
41:25 - Lux aeterna (soprano solo and choir)
The Requiem was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death on December 5. A completion dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem mass to commemorate the February 14 anniversary of his wife's death.
The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated introit in Mozart's hand, as well as detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence Dies Irae as far as the first nine bars of "Lacrimosa", and the offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost "scraps of paper" for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as his own. Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart's widow Constanze.
A modern contribution to the mythology is Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus (based on Pushkin's play "Mozart and Salieri"), and the subsequent film by Forman, in which a mysterious messenger orders Mozart to write a requiem mass, giving no explanation for the order; Mozart (in the play) then comes to believe that the piece is meant to be the requiem mass for his own funeral.
Many people have tried different completions, but the Süssmayr completion is the most performed, because he was Mozart's pupil and may have had the possibility of receiving instructions from Mozart on how to complete the requiem.
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