Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K626
Performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Edward Higginbottom, and the Oxford New College Choir
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is one amazing group of musicians and the results they achieve with their performances are really terrific.
This distinctive recording of Mozart’s last great work is unique in two defining ways:
- a. The use of soloists drawn from the chorus, as was the practice in Mozart’s day
- b. The use of a period orchestra.
These are not empty gestures. The contemporary benefits of this approach are consistency in the sound-world between chorus and solo ensemble, and homogeneity of the performance style between period ensemble (here the excellent Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and the period chorus.
The musical text employed in the Requiem is the Süssmayr completion of Mozart’s unfinished score.
Here is a video of Handel’s music as performed by the excellent Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment:
And here is Rachel Podger, violinist, rehearsing Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment:
Tags: Mozart Requiem, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Oxford New College Choir