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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Don't Hear How It Can Get Any Better Than This Apr 04, 2008
Many, many aeons ago I participated in the chorus of a University production of Mozart's REQUIEM. One of my friends (who was in the audience) said to me after the performance, "I've never seen you look so happy."
I was...and who wouldn't be?
Participating in a classical chorus always creates an immediate sense of community--even if limited to the run of the show. Participating in a Mozart work--and particularly his REQUIEM--rates as a very special experience.
Not surprisingly I purchased several REQUIUEM recordings over the years since that joyful experience, no doubt in an understandable attempt to keep the happy memory alive.
All of the recordings have been good, but this New Completion by Robert Levine has got to be as good as it can possibly get--short of going back in time to hear an original performance--and by that I mean, a performance conducted by the great composer himself.
This is also an excellent Mozart "primer" work for the "uninitiated". It is a rousing, dynamic, exuberant, divinely inspired human creation--and showcases the musical genius at his most accessible best--all on a single CD at a realy great price.
Mozart: Die Zauberflote
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A winning completion Oct 23, 2007
Most of us who know the Mozart Requiem know it from the famous Sussmayr completion even with its faults. Through the years many scholars have sought to offer alternative completions, but many people consider them unsatisfactory. Now comes a completion by scholar Robert Levin, written such that it only corrects the faults of the Sussmayr completion and does not replace it completely. I must admit I had my doubts, but after listening to it, the results are superb and I hope that one day more people will consider performing the work in this version. I'm not a qualified musicologist, but I know this completion has merits such that the Amen and Hosanna fugues fit better into the score, and are better than the rough edges of Sussmayr's original at these points.
This superbly-engineered Telarc recording features a performance from Martin Pearlman's Boston Baroque. Although I'm not terribly familiar with this ensemble, this group turns in a fantastic and heartfelt performance, aided by a top-notch quartet of soloists. The soloists blend well together and as a group, and Ruth Ziesak is telling in her opening entry and in the Recordare. The only qualm I have about the soloists is that David Arnold is perhaps not imposing enough in the Tuba mirum, but he eases himself into the work and eventually sounds superb. Pearlman's tempi are brisk and never sound rushed, and his chorus sings with feeling, fervour and conviction. Other reviewers have mentioned the chilling, demonic effect that he achieves in the Dies irae, but I could also mention that it sounds imploring too in the Rex tremendae and the Domine Jesu.
All told, for the criticisms levelled at this recording and this edition, I think I like this version of the Mozart Requiem much more than the standard Sussmayr version. I know that the original Mozart Requiem has had venerable recordings in the past, from the likes of Karajan, Bohm, Robert Shaw, Gardiner and Thielemann, to name but five, but this superb version is probably my new favourite. The unusual thing about this completion is that it too gets to the heart of the work without the editor putting his stamp on the work. Now if only Martin Pearlman and the Boston Baroque will get round to recording the Levin completion of the Mozart Great Mass in C Minor, and hopefully record the Kyrie K341 as a fill-up to this disc.
3 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Beautifully performed garbage Sep 13, 2007
Mozart's requiem, though incomplete, is an unmatched masterpiece in it's genre. Leave it to Levin, then, to butcher some of the most important parts. He says that one cannot simply discard some of the non-mozart parts yet replaces much of it with his own decidedly pedestrian contributions which are best described as quasi-baroque with a romantic flair. I'll take mediocre classical (duly informed by Mozart himself) over mediocre Levin (informed purely by educated speculation) any day.
The fugues are simply uninspired and sometimes offensive. A bit more plagiarism would have spruced up the many unnecessarily original sections. It seems, counter-point is not Levin's forte. Having said that, it's far less offensive than that vain and incongruous travesty that's the Levin/Mozart C-Minor Mass. Yet even here he often makes changes in perfectly good classical accompaniment for no apparent reason.
The one saving grace of Levin's unforgettable contributions, and one that almost rescues the entire ill-conceived project, is the decision to include the Amen fugue. Mozart only wrote a few bars of it (and how obvious) yet, like the Lacrimosa, a few bars of heaven go a long way towards rectifying the musical hell that is to come. Even Levin's inappropriate accompaniment and failed counterpoint cannot undermine the incredible beauty that unfolds during those first twenty-some blessed seconds. Even the grating romantic chords and motifs that follow fail to dull the memory of that wonderful, hopeful, and heavenly opening. With Boston Baroque playing, and Martin Pearlman at the helm, it seemed, for those few precious seconds, as if the very heavens are about to open and angels descend on earth ... and I'm not even the religious sort.
Therein lies the other tragedy of this CD. The unfailingly superb musicianship of the Boston Baroque is squandered on what is best described as beautifully performed garbage.
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
requiem Aug 23, 2007
This was exactly the product I was told to purchase. thank you for making it so easy to procure
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent! Mar 05, 2007
I bought this version of the Requiem after doing some research on the various completions. Prior to that I'd been studying several of the late Haydn Masses and had a fairly good sense of the conventions of late 18th century liturgical music. My first listen to Sussmeyer's completion after looking at the Haydn left me really dissatisfied with what Sussmeyer had done with the work. It sounded pretty lame especially the truncated fugues at the end of the Sactus and Benedictus.
When I got this CD I went straight for the Lacrymosa. It's my favorite movement of the whole work. The completion by Levin includes a fugual Amen based on a fragment that as best as musicologists can tell was intended as the basis for the end of the Lacrymosa. This differs considerably from Sussmeyers massive two chord Amen. Mozart had totally assimilated the contrapuntal language of Bach and Handel, but his student was probably simply not up to the task of completing the fugue. That's my guess. Anyway, as I listened to Levin's completion of the Lacrymosa, it sounded a little weird at first. The things I was used to being in certain places were altered a little. The convention in liturgical music of the period was to end on a half cadence before going into a fugal ending. Sussmeyer does a full authentic candence before doing his big Amen. Levin follows the convention of the period leaving things hanging in expectation of the fugue. Sure, that sounds technical, but Levin's version just sounds better. As I listened to it I felt like I was hearing something much closer to what Mozart would have done. It was spine-tingly, like Levin was almost channeling Mozart. The Amen fugue is extremely well done and almost totally convincing. There are a few passages that are a little iffy (Mozart would have done it better), but the overall effect is a more convincing end to the Sequence, actually very uplifting. I totally love it. Levin's reworking of Sussmeyer's compositional contributions are a definite improvement without potentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The reworkings of the fugues at the ends of the Sanctus and Benedictus are drastic improvements. They're simply vastly superior to Sussmeyer's work. They flow naturally and cadence idiomatically for the better (I would have ended on a full major chord rather than an open fifth - that follows Mozart's own practice). In these passages Levin ends up being a better 18th century composer that Sussmeyer was.
Oh yeah, the performance... It's very good. I'd like to hear John Elliot Gardiner do this version, but short of that I'd recommend it highly. Very clear and precise, excellent tempi, good balance between the choir and the orchestra.
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