Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

During his last years in Vienna Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed only three liturgical works: the short 'Ave Verum Corpus' and two unfinished masterworks: the 'Mass In C Minor' and the 'Requiem' In D Minor. Most of his sacred oeuvre was written at an early age in the conservative city of Salzburg. The 'Requiem' from 1791 is stylistically far removed from that early church music and suits the concert hall better than the church. Chief conductor Mariss Jansons leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Choir and an excellent vocal quartet, featuring Genia Kühmeier (soprano), Bernarda Fink (contralto), Mark Padmore (tenor) and Gerald Finley (bass) in an intense reading of Mozart's last masterpiece. We take it as a given that Mozart's Requiem is one of the undoubted classics in music of any genre and have no doubt that any collection of classical, choral or Christian music must contain a recording of this, so the only question left is should it be this particular recording, taken from concerts in September 2011. While there is certainly nothing wrong with it all we can say is that it is no worse than any of the others we have heard. Neither is it any better. At full price the packaging and booklet notes are inadequate and the recording length of merely 47 minutes really needs something else to give value for money. As it stands, if this was a budget release I would rate in quite highly but at full price there are many better versions readily available.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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