Mozart: Requiem

Requiem, K. 626; Savall, J. Les Concert des Nations with La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, Alia Vox (May 2023)

A portion of the score of Mozart’s Requiem used to hang on the window to one of my professor’s office doors. He’d never tell us what the piece was, which, one day led to a number of students arguing about the provenance of the music.

Like many around the time the movie Amadeus premiered, I’d not known of this piece, or much of Mozart in general. The movie had inspired in me to try and play the piano as Mozart had in the movie, upside down. It was a ridiculous parlor trick, I think.

My next exposure to the work was in the living room of my friend’s aunt and uncle. They had a much richer exposure to European art music, the aunt being a violinist herself. Upon staying at their home for a week, my friend explored his uncle to “put on the Mozart.” Evidently the exposure my friend had had with the music earlier involved dimming the lights where the family all acted out the singing, at least with the opening to the Sequentia, Dies Irae.

My first period performance exposure, which has served as my reference for many years, is the recording on Erato by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Before us now is the second recording by Jordi Savall, another baroque and early music specialist. I am not sure it is important to this discussion of Mozart, but Savall and Koopman have performed together, one of course being a keyboardist and in the case of Savall, best known for being a viol da gamba player. Both musicians have recorded, of course, a huge number of orchestral literature from the early music canon, not to mention solo material for their respective instruments.

The question for us as listeners is why “another Requiem recording?” While not as saturated in the catalog as Vivaldi’s Seasons, the work has only gained in popularity with audiences, at least, it seems, since I discovered it in my youth through a movie. And, secondarily, among all the other recordings of this work, including those made within the last 5-10 years, how does this one compare?

Research into the Music

Of course the allure of this piece goes beyond the music. There’s the mystery around the work, which also surrounds Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuga, having been left “unfinished” by the composers. The history of the piece and its origins and the subsequent journey the piece had, in performance, and to the publishers Breitkopf and Härtel, is well-documented in this new release’s liner notes. Score analysis for handwriting and several contemporary accounts explain Süßmayr’s contributions, as one of Mozart’s students.

From the liner notes:

Today, thanks to the information contained in several manuscript documents left by the principal witnesses of the period, such as Niemetschek’s account of the composer’s life and work (the earliest edition dating from 1798), referenced in the biography by Nissen (Constanze’s second husband), and in particular the text by Anton Herzog, which provides a detailed account of events between 1791 and 1839, we have a better understanding of the mystery and the reasons behind Mozart’s being commissioned to compose the Requiem, especially the circumstances surrounding the last period of Mozart’s life, as well as the completion of the work by his pupil F. X. Süssmayr.

Savall, while acknowledging his earlier recording, gives few details about what changes exist between the score used in the 1991 recording and this one. They do offer, however, this:

In our performance, we have followed as closely as possible the conditions prevalent in Mozart’s day. The soloists and the vocal ensemble (with only 20 participants) sing in Latin with the required transparency and intensity of pronunciation current in Vienna at the end of the 18th century. The orchestra of period instruments, tuned to 430 Hz, comprises 18 string instruments, 9 wind instruments, organ and timpani. The trombones have the narrow mouthpieces characteristic of the period, and the true 5-key basset horns, with an additional lower register, are after Theodor Lotz, the instrument-maker who worked closely with Mozart’s clarinetist, Anton Stadler).

I auditioned the first recording for some time and found many strengths; there is a transparency to the instruments that is lacking in other recordings, there’s also a lot of vigor to be had in the playing. Listening with headphones one is tricked into thinking you’re in the conductor’s spot, with the singers all behind the orchestra, soloists spread-out in quasi-surround sound. There are aspects of this recording that for me better my Koopman reference, both in recorded sound and interpretation. The “angelic” singing by sopranos in the Confutatis reveals the shortcoming of the original Savall recording; the transparency in the sound is very honest but it doesn’t give us the ethereal effect we might get in a church, far from the singers as those pitches seem to hover over us from heaven.

New Interpretation

Interesting to me, this new recording also highlights extreme transparency. I won’t go so far to say that the first recording was a template for this one, but I appreciate the closeness they share in putting us, as listeners, at least with headphones, so close to the musicians. This new recording is louder, over all, but the other effect is that a layer or two of distance is removed. This recording is more dynamic and even more realistic in its presentation. It sounds less as if I’m standing with the musicians, but perhaps a few paces in front, which I think is a more natural sound.

But the sound signature of these two recordings aside, the most notable details are Savall’s revision of his interpretation. It’s the real reason, I think, for exploring this album. In as few words as possible, this version is an attempt to turn the drama up, if not to an 8 or 9, maybe an 11 on the metaphorical knob.

The effect might never be enjoyed with period forces in a large hall; however in the intimacy of a chamber hall or within the confines of our heads in a listening room, we can go with Savall on a journey hearing Mozart’s Requiem with even more color and dynamic flair.

Rachel Redmond is the soprano soloist, whose performances rival those of Savall’s late wife, Montserrat Figueras in the 90s recording. The choir is La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, which includes student musicians. The choir’s presentation isn’t as clear as other recordings; in the Dies irae the brass and percussion seem to dominate the texture; the choir with winds and percussion nearly drown the strings out. I am not sure this is a fault, the power Savall commands from the singers is a formidable wall of sound. It’s intense and sonically enjoyable.

As a former trombonist, the Tuba mirum is a special movement for me. The trombone solo doesn’t dominate the texture, which I don’t think it should; the solution here emphasizing the role of the singer(s) I think is the way to go. It’s well done and speaks to the high quality of all four soloists.

The style employed in the next movement, the Rex tremendae with a choppy, highly articulated style employed in the strings, and the fortissimo proclamations from the choir, is full and impassioned, without becoming lush. The ending of the movement slows down and the gas is let out, showing the ensemble’s more reserved side, meshing brilliantly into the Recordare. The speed and intensity called for by Savall in this movement is felt elsewhere in the recording, which is why I tend to think of one “turning up the volume” from their earlier recording. The playing and singing are tight, but the intensity—and this goes beyond just volume—is more.

The opening and closing of the work (Lux aeterna), using the same material, has a bounce and push in this newer recording. The stereo effect with the violin choirs separated sounds great.

For points of comparison, I wanted to highlight a few other recordings in my own search for why we need another recording of the Requiem.

• Florian Helgath, 2020 This recording offers a “completion” of the work by Michael Ostrzyga, and features the HIP ensemble Concerto Köln with Chorwerk Ruhr. The recording pushes the listener a hundred or more feet away from the performers. All the instruments are put in second chair with the emphasis on what sounds like a larger choir. The four soloists come from an operatic background, it seems, their embrace of vibrato is a clear departure from the earlier style of singing employed in Savall’s recording.
• René Jacobs, 2017 Jacobs partnered with the HIP ensemble Freiburger Barockorchester and the RIAS Kammerchor for their production on Harmonia Mundi. The engineers, like the example above, put us some distance from the musicians. There is an intensity in Jacob’s approach, but the way they get there is different. There’s less momentum; all involved again emphasize the choir over the instruments. The strings are better represented in the recording. The soloists also don’t shy from using vibrato. The Tuba mirum movement is very different; the orchestral contributions are easier to hear in some ways, and Jacob’s contribution to the shaping of the piece seems far more dramatic. Really hearing this for the first time, I think it’s an interesting departure from many approaches.
• John Butt, 2014 The Dundedin Consort recorded the work in 2014; I started with the Tuba mirum where the approach for the trombone is very different from Savall; the part is far more out-front. Their desire was to re-create its first performance. While the soloists do employ vibrato, it is not to the fullest effect, as the Helgath recording employs. The sound of the choir under Butt’s direction I’m digging. The men in the choir come across more fully in timbre than they do in Savall’s recording. Butt, over all, isn’t afraid to relax a bit in the work. This recording takes a special emphasis on the historical research into the work, and may be of interest alone for this aspect.

The liner notes mention Mozart’s ambition for this work, that it should be studied in the future. The issue with this work, for many, is who wrote what. Is this a piece by Mozart? A plan by Mozart, implemented by friends and students? The lack of one definitive version of the work has been one of the reasons for so many recordings. Yet even with different movements or “corrections” made to existing movements, the different recordings offer more than just different historical perspectives. They each belong to different performance traditions, not to mention the artistic authenticity of each conductor and his soloists. Then on top of that, we have the art of recording engineers who either help or fight the artistic vision of the musicians.

I think the opening bars of this new CD by Savall says a lot. It trucks along at a good pace, the pulse set well by the bass instruments. A full, almost three dimensional choir sound emerges around the instruments, the violins sticking out of the texture like swords poking out of an aural orb. A minute in and it’s obvious that we are nearly surrounded by the musicians in a more intimate recording, one that I find more unusual when even comparing HIP recordings of the requiem mass. There are times I wish the strings came out more in this recording, while the violins do come poking out, the recording is more focused on the timpani, the organ (not a dig, I like hearing it, despite Butt, in his notes, advocating for fortepiano as the appropriate continuo keyboard), and when they are all employed, the choir. The pictures provided in the booklet reveal maybe why everyone sounds so integrated. Savall surrounds the choir around the instruments. I can’t speak to the historical rationale for this, but the effect for a recording is really nice.

Despite the ultimate transparency for hearing the string parts more clearly, I can’t help but ignore the fire Savall brings to many of the movements. It is clear when listening to the older recording that some of these ideas have been with him for a long time; nevertheless, the result here is far more palpable and exciting. The analogy I draw is one of a sculpture with stone. The original recording’s statue is more smooth and rounded; this recording has been cast with larger, more angular cuts, with some of the edges left sharp. For my taste, I do enjoy soloists who aren’t turning on a wide, operatic vibrato. To me it’s one of the benefits of this recording. It’s not that there’s no vibrato, but it’s just far more subtle.

My new connection to the Butt recording with Dunedin and the research to recreate the Requiem's first performance, does at least settle the fact that having a definitive, single version of this work is a complex affair. Despite both ensembles' directors aiming for a historical context for their sound, both Butt and Savall differ in the work's presentation.

I continue to grapple with the mass's later movements which lack the magic of the mass' first half. No performance really changes this for me. I can't speak to others' motivations, but desires to present alternative solutions for the later movements which bare the pen of Süssmayr I can only think hope to restore a more Mozartean polish, which of course, is a rather questionable affair.

For me, this is a new reference recording. It’s hard to pick a perfect recording of a major work when different recordings offer different versions of the same piece; yet, it’s the interpretive style I admire most. It’s engaging. This isn’t music you’re going to daydream to; it’s going to pull you in and keep you wide awake.