Mozart’s Requiem is probably the most famous fragment in music history. It is mainly known in the completed version by his pupil Franz Xaver Süßmayr produced immediately after Mozart’s death. Although Süßmayr could work with notes and sketches left by his master for some of the unfinished movements, musicologists and musicians have detected a number of deficiencies in his completion.
The bicentenary of Mozart’s death (and his Requiem) has inspired the American pianist and Mozart scholar Robert D. Levin to pursue a scrupulous completion in the spirit of the composer. By imitating the character, texture, voice leading and structure of Mozart’s music – with his surviving sketches and a newly composed “Amen” fugue in Mozartian style –, Levin aims to fulfill as close as possible Mozart’s ambition. The result is an excellent alternative to the hitherto mainstream Süßmayr version.
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Composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
| 1756-1791As the son of the deputy Kapellmeister to the Salzburg Prince-Archbishop, Mozart was constantly surrounded by church music in his youth. On his travels Mozart became familiar with Italian church music, and later in Vienna he studied the works of Bach and Handel. After moving to Vienna he was faced with the new challenges of composing opera and piano concertos, and significantly the “C Minor Mass” KV 427, the greatest sacred work of the first Vienna years, remained unfinished. The last period of his life again shows a change of direction to church music: Mozart successfully applied to succeed the terminally ill Leopold Hoffmann as Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, but he was unable to take up the position as he died before Hoffmann. A gem such as the “Ave verum” KV 618 and the incomplete Requiem KV 626 give us an idea of what Mozart might have achieved as a composer of sacred music if he had taken up this important position. Personal details
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Arranger
Robert D. Levin
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Frequent questions about this work
To which version of the Mozart Requiem do the recorded practice aids Carus Choir Coach and App fit?
The practice aids have been recorded with the Süßmayer version of the Mozart Requiem. For all other versions (Maunder, Levin, Beyer, ...) the practice aids can be used with minor restrictions, since deviations from the other versions are possible. The passages from Mozart's autograph are reproduced in full in the practice aids, as in all versions.
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