Two illustrious composers at odds with their Requiem? When, in 1791, a 36-year-old Mozart composed the one that would remain unfinished due to his death,...

Two illustrious composers at odds with their Requiem? When, in 1791, a 36-year-old Mozart composed the one that would remain unfinished due to his death, he did so in response to a commission from the eccentric Count von Walsegg. Mozart would never hear his music. At the time, Salieri was at the height of his glory at the age of 41, famed for his operas from Paris and Milan to Rome and of course Vienna, where he was Court Composer and Director of the Italian Opera. Having put an end to his lyrical career, in 1804 he composed his Requiem, which was strictly intended for his own funeral, where it was indeed played – in 1825. Hervé Niquet brings us these two monuments of Viennese liturgy with panache. Could Mozart have been imagining his own funeral when he composed his sublime Requiem? What could be a more fantastic musical celebration of a genius?