Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Christie, Anna Maria Panzarella :: Mozart - Requiem / Panzarella, Stutzmann, Prégardin, Berg, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

A wonderfully clear and fluid requiem

NotATameLion | Michigan | 06/02/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have put together a powerful recording of Mozart's Requiem. All the debates surrounding its composition and history notwithstanding, this is beautiful music. The opening in the Introitus is crystal-bright and spaciously stunning. Christie creates a beautiful vocal ebb and flow throughout the whole disc. The orchestra moves hand in glove with the vocalists. The brass is wonderfully forceful yet not overbearing in the Dies Irae. The beautiful singing on the Recordare alone makes this CD well worth the price. The recording quality makes this a 53:39 program irresistible. I recommend this CD."

Good performance, and good quality recording

Patrick Fewell | Phoenix, AZ | 01/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this CD, because it is fairly cheap, and because it also has Ave Verum. I really enjoyed how well this conductor worked the vocal (and instrumental) parts together. That alone is worth the price of this recording. Also, the whole requiem fits together well. It makes you want to listen to all of the CD, not just one song. The most important thing for me is that the sound quality is really good. It is not only that it was a good studio digital recording. The performers themselves are exellent. This CD is well worth the price."

An Exciting Authentic Performance

B. R. Merrick | 04/19/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I will only listen to Baroque music performed on authentic instruments. In my opinion, the music demands the proper instruments in order to be truly heard. Mozart, however, along with other composers of the Classical era, is perfectly acceptable on modern instruments to my ear, as long as they play like the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Les Arts Florissants is not a modern orchestra, though. They are clearly playing on what are supposed to be properly constructed instruments for Mozart's day. I don't mind the difference at all.



Considering that I suffered many years with a recording that became increasingly intolerable due to its lack of originality and fire, the crisp, thin texture of ancient strings, as well as the combination of women's and boys' voices in the choir, is refreshing and new (to me, anyway).



One of the nicest things about authentic early music ensembles is that the brass are not constructed to play as loudly as modern brass, so that the orchestra as a whole does not need to hold back. The choir can belt it out (and they do) while the orchestra goes for greater vigor in the louder, faster passages like the Dies Irae and Confutatis. In the latter, I prefer to hear only men's and boys' voices, and on this recording, there are women as well, but it is a criticism hardly worth mentioning. Just listen to these expert singers handle the melismas in the faster tempos.



And Christie really pushes the tempos here. This doesn't sound like those austere, all-too-proper readings of Mozart's music. Incisive brass, archi con fuoco, even a timpani that shocks you with its ferocity. I would love to hear him turned loose on some of Mozart's symphonies. Perhaps sometime in the future, no?"