1791 was a busy year for Mozart. Already working on Die Zauberflöte  and under deadline to deliver La Clemenza di Tito, he received a commission for a requiem. However, Mozart's untimely death left his Requiem unfinished. The work was completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a copyist and composer who was working with Mozart on his operas. Although commonly performed and recorded, Süssmayr's version has never been embraced by scholars. In 2016, René Jacobs championed a new version of the work as completed by young French composer Pierre-Henri Dutron. It was performed for audiences in a series of five concerts around Europe and met with widespread acclaim. The harmonia mundi label is proud to present its world première studio recording, featuring Maestro Jacobs leading the Freiburger Barockorchester.

-----

REVIEWS:

Jacobs’s conducting uses textural variation, urgent but flexibly shaped phrasing, and the odd trick of rhetorical timing to keep the work light, briskly flowing and human in scale. As ever he has plenty of ideas, and the lithe and alert playing of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the firm singing of the RIAS Chamber Choir ensure that he is able to realize them with clarity and effective control of detail.

– Gramophone

The 2016 revision by Pierre-Henri Dutron of Mozart/Sussmayr's Requiem, K. 626 performed here, includes noticeable changes throughout, particularly from the ending of the Lacrimosa onward, and a major reworking of counterpoint and orchestration in the Sanctus, the Benedictus, and the Hosanna fugues. In his historically informed interpretation, Jacobs favors a lean orchestral texture and brisk tempos, and the orchestra plays with clear sonorities, preventing any muddiness in the basset horns and bassoons. The vocal quartet is well-blended and evenly balanced in the Tuba mirum, the Recordare, and the Hostias, and the RIAS Kammerchor provides transparent lines with crisp diction, making the Latin text easy to follow.

– All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)