Mozart’s Unfinished Music:
- Requiem in D minor, K626
Edition by Franz Beyer
Wolfgang Mozart died in 1791 at the age of 35. He had been was desperately ill and also desperately in need of money. So he accepted a commission to write a Requiem that was never completed.
Several musicians over the years attempted to create their own versions of this final work, using material that Mozart completed, coupled with their own added material. The version that is most frequently performed is the one by Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
Here are some excerpts from my Spotify file called “Mozart Requiem”:
This DVD lets us listen to the Requiem version created by Franz Beyer.
Together with a first-class group of soloists, the choirs of the Bavarian and Swedish radios, and the distinguished musicians of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, Claudio Abbado presents a somewhat hopeful and forgiving essence of the Mozart Requiem, rather than music that is totally dark and despairing.
The soloists are:
Anna Prohaska (soprano), Sara Mingardo (alto), Maximilian Schmitt (tenor) & René Pape (bass), and supported by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Choir & Swedish Radio Choir, conducted by Claudio Abbado
The German Radio ‘Kultur’ wrote:
“The baton is not a magic wand – it cannot join together the fragmentary work that Mozart composed in the face of death. Yet, in Abbado’s hand, the baton could become a guide to the mysterious, sublime, consoling legacy of Mozart.”
Here is a video of more than an hour, of a memorial ceremony performed in Vienna on the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death in 1991. With soloist Cecilia Bartoli, and conducted by George Solti.
And next, here is my favorite excerpt from this masterpiece: Mozart’s ‘Lacrimosa’ from his Requiem, as conducted by Karl Böhm:
Finally, here is the ‘Benedictus’ from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, KV 626 with Claudio Abbado conducting:
http://youtu.be/U_N2u3FsH3g
Tags: Mozart, Requiem, Claudio Abbado, Lucerne Festival Orchestra