Mozart: Requiem
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 5/1987
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 610-1GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Requiem |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Soprano Helga Müller-Molinari, Mezzo soprano Herbert von Karajan, Conductor Paata Burchuladze, Bass Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Singverein Vinson Cole, Tenor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 5/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 610-2GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Requiem |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Soprano Helga Müller-Molinari, Mezzo soprano Herbert von Karajan, Conductor Paata Burchuladze, Bass Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Singverein Vinson Cole, Tenor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 5/1987
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 610-4GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Requiem |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Soprano Helga Müller-Molinari, Mezzo soprano Herbert von Karajan, Conductor Paata Burchuladze, Bass Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Singverein Vinson Cole, Tenor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Label: Telarc
Magazine Review Date: 5/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 45
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CD80128
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Requiem |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Arleen Augér, Soprano Atlanta Symphony Chorus Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Delores Ziegler, Mezzo soprano Jerry Hadley, Tenor Robert Shaw, Conductor Tom Krause, Baritone Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Author: Alan Blyth
In one of his first reviews for Gramophone, NA expressed pleasant surprise that he found so much to admire in Karajan's 1976 recording of the Requiem because, like me, he was not then an admirer of the conductor's Mozart. Well, I also find in the new recording ''a surprisingly passionate and devotional element'' in Karajan's interpretation, and one that—perhaps because of his many physical travails since then—has become even deeper. Of course, it remains a big-scale, romantic reading but it is by no means ponderous or inflated as I find the Barenboim (EMI) to be, nor does it indulge in Barenboim's self-conscious effects. And, unexpectedly, tempos seem marginally quicker than in 1976 and are seldom slower than those adopted by the much-admired Schereier (Philips). Karajan seems very much aware that the Last Trump is nearing; he often lives generally in a performance that is stern, sometimes almost dismissive yet one that I found moving.
There is a marked preponderance, as at the start of ''Rex tremendae'', to give the Vienna Philharmonic their head in pounding out the rhythms and the Vienna Singverein license to sing forcefully as in the ''Confutatis'' and ''Quam olim Abrahae'' section of the ''Hostias''. In both cases, but especially as regards the chorus, the execution is now more alert than in 1976; certainly the Vienna choir seem to have rejuvenated themselves on this evidence, the recording is preferable in every way, at once more spacious, of greater range yet, in the case of the voices, more immediate, CD having the biggest advantage there.
There has to be a snag, unfortunately; it concerns two of the soloists. Sadly, Tomowa-Sintow shows a marked decline over her 1976 self. Where her voice then was ideally warm and poised, it tends now to sound too tremulous for Mozart and a certain tiredness causes her to reach up to some notes uncomfortably. The mezzo and the tenor are, happily, excellent. The main reservations concern Burchuladze. Karajan has reportedly said that he is the greatest Russian bass since Chaliapin, a meaningless statement that excludes Kipnis, Petrov, Reizen and Gymria, but even were he that good, his timbre is quite unsuited to this music and his intonation is often doubtful. Why didn't Karajan turn again to van Dam, so admirable on the older LP? Yet, in ensemble, though the quartet sound occasionally overawed by the maestro, they sing with a conviction that matches Karajan's.
The quartet assembled for the Telarc performance has a better sense of Mozartian style—Delores Ziegler ane Jerry Hadley are among the most pleasing of younger Mozartians. But, in other respects, this is a disappointment account of the work, unable to compete in choral or orchestral terms with the DG and a trifle dull as regards the conducting. In a world where there were fewer rivals, this performance would do very nicely, for it has few positive drawbacks, but I didn't glean from it a sense of searching after eternal matters that inform the most telling interpretations. A point in its favour, for some, may be the use of the Beyer 'reforms', but they don't seem to me so essential as to move the balance more than a mite in Shaw's direction.
Neither HF in her review six months ago, nor myself, find a great deal to admire in the Barenboim, but the Schreier remains very much in the running, and still has the most convincing—in terms of articulation and tone—chorus and orchestra. It is no less urgent than the new Karajan but a good deal more buoyant, which emphasizes the starkness of many of the harmonies, while in lyrical passages the Schreier approach seems the most Mozartian of all. Karajan admirers will not be disappointed by the new version, but faith in the Philips remains unshaken.'
There is a marked preponderance, as at the start of ''Rex tremendae'', to give the Vienna Philharmonic their head in pounding out the rhythms and the Vienna Singverein license to sing forcefully as in the ''Confutatis'' and ''Quam olim Abrahae'' section of the ''Hostias''. In both cases, but especially as regards the chorus, the execution is now more alert than in 1976; certainly the Vienna choir seem to have rejuvenated themselves on this evidence, the recording is preferable in every way, at once more spacious, of greater range yet, in the case of the voices, more immediate, CD having the biggest advantage there.
There has to be a snag, unfortunately; it concerns two of the soloists. Sadly, Tomowa-Sintow shows a marked decline over her 1976 self. Where her voice then was ideally warm and poised, it tends now to sound too tremulous for Mozart and a certain tiredness causes her to reach up to some notes uncomfortably. The mezzo and the tenor are, happily, excellent. The main reservations concern Burchuladze. Karajan has reportedly said that he is the greatest Russian bass since Chaliapin, a meaningless statement that excludes Kipnis, Petrov, Reizen and Gymria, but even were he that good, his timbre is quite unsuited to this music and his intonation is often doubtful. Why didn't Karajan turn again to van Dam, so admirable on the older LP? Yet, in ensemble, though the quartet sound occasionally overawed by the maestro, they sing with a conviction that matches Karajan's.
The quartet assembled for the Telarc performance has a better sense of Mozartian style—Delores Ziegler ane Jerry Hadley are among the most pleasing of younger Mozartians. But, in other respects, this is a disappointment account of the work, unable to compete in choral or orchestral terms with the DG and a trifle dull as regards the conducting. In a world where there were fewer rivals, this performance would do very nicely, for it has few positive drawbacks, but I didn't glean from it a sense of searching after eternal matters that inform the most telling interpretations. A point in its favour, for some, may be the use of the Beyer 'reforms', but they don't seem to me so essential as to move the balance more than a mite in Shaw's direction.
Neither HF in her review six months ago, nor myself, find a great deal to admire in the Barenboim, but the Schreier remains very much in the running, and still has the most convincing—in terms of articulation and tone—chorus and orchestra. It is no less urgent than the new Karajan but a good deal more buoyant, which emphasizes the starkness of many of the harmonies, while in lyrical passages the Schreier approach seems the most Mozartian of all. Karajan admirers will not be disappointed by the new version, but faith in the Philips remains unshaken.'
Mozart: Requiem
Mozart: Requiem
Mozart: Requiem
Mozart Requiem
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