Mozart: Requiem [Levin Edition]

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Mozart: Requiem [Levin Edition]
1.	Requiem for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, K. 626 46:44
	Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Performed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Christine Brewer, Ruxandra Donose, Norman MacKenzie, Eric Owens, John Tessier and Atlanta Chamber Choir
	Conducted by Donald Runnicles

Barnes & Noble

The list of those who have tinkered with Mozart's unfinished Requiem is long, including such major modern-era figures as Bruno Walter, Richard Strauss, and Thomas Beecham. F. X. Süssmayer's version, completed shortly after Mozart's death and the standard one ever since, has never been considered fully satisfactory, and Robert Levin's 1993 revision, presented on this fine recording, is another attempt to remedy that situation. Levin doesn't reject Süssmayer out of hand; rather, he takes him as a starting point, fine-tuning his orchestration and adjusting his harmonic and part-writing errors. More daringly, Levin lengthens the "Hosanna" fugues that follow the "Sanctus" and "Benedictus" and supplies a new "Amen" fugue after the "Lacrimosa," expanding on a Mozart sketch that Süssmayer discarded. Finally, he rearranges some of the movements to better conform to the Mozart-era convention of ending each Mass section with a fugue. Whether or not this will become the benchmark edition going forward, it's hard to argue with the beautiful performance conductor Donald Runnicles draws from his Atlanta musicians. Runnicles keeps the pace moving briskly, though not at the expense of detail, and he elicits a warm, full tone from the orchestra and chorus. His four soloists -- soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose, tenor John Tessier, and bass Eric Owens -- each contribute solid ensemble and solo work, especially Owens in the resounding "Tuba mirum." Those looking for a more dramatically charged reading may want to give Nikolaus Harnoncourt's thrilling 2004 recording a try. But this one, poised somewhere between cutting-edge performances like Harnoncourt's and more traditional accounts and drawing on a much improved score, may be the one to return to again and again. EJ Johnson

New York Times

Mr. Levin respects Süssmayr's close connection to Mozart and does not jettison his work but sensibly improves on it, thinning, grooming and correcting, with a keen scholarly eye and an intuitive grasp of Mozart's idiom. Jeremy Eichler

Gramophone

The 70-strong choir, though slightly recessed in the balance, sing with fervour and cope adroitly with Runnicles' zestful tempi for the Kyrie and "Quam olim Abrahae" fugues. Orchestral detail is sensitively shaped...and the soloists are good. Richard Wigmore

Time Out New York

Runnicles coaxes a clean, historically informed but warm sound from his ensembles, providing the music with a stirring momentum and gripping urgency that never descends into sentimentality. Vivien Schweitzer

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Grade: A] A sterling reading.... Runnicles knows voices, and he treats them well. The chorus...sings with clarity, beauty, a good blend and exactitude. So do the soloists. Sarah Bryan Miller