Best Mozart Requiem Recording? - Page 2

Colin Davis on Philips is my long time favorite. It's not original instruments and uses some non-updated texts, but it's a very good performance.

Hmm, tempting but there is other music I want to buy first. I took Colin Davis/LSO and Dmitry Sitkovetsky doing Prokofiev's Violin Concertos, was great from the part I could listen too (library CDs are treated so poorly )

Scott

If you check out many cd's from the library, you must get a cd repair kit. I use the motorized disc doctor and it has paid for itself many times over:

From Best Buy

Thos thingsa really work? never tried one.

Here's a good list of good Mozart Requiem recordings.

I have more than 22 recordings of the Mozart Requiem. My favorite is the following:

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000095JS0/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00069OVTQ&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0DG0CB3H0TMC70R34XJA

Here is an old thread of mine that dealt with Mozart's Requiem.

 

It also has my preferred versions. Hope it helps.

 

I second this. Everything Mackerras did with the SCO for Linn Records is incredible. I've heard about half a dozen versions of Mozart's Requiem now and this is my favorite.

 

Also make sure to get their recordings of Symphonies 38-41.
 

This is a version that I'm listening to at this very moment, Sir Georg Solti in 1991, conducting the Vienna Philarmonic (Wiener Philarmoniker) which you can find on Amazon here with lots of other reviews to read:  http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-Aug%C3%A9r-Bartoli-Wiener/dp/B0000041ZS  

 

 

You can also find portions of it uploaded to youtube, here is the Introitus:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGxpI4aIBA

 

A number of the reviews on the Amazon page are well written, and you can tell there are many Mozart-philes contributing, it seems a very literate crowd.  There are 25 reviews of this version there.  23 out of 25 reviews gave it 5 out of 5 stars.  Up to 59 people it seems have read these reviews and have indicated that at least 30 of them were helpful.  After I'd gotten to the 3rd page of stellar reviews, I figured that was enough and went to iTunes to download it (hey, I'm a broke student and don't have the $ for a top of the line audio system).  Yes, it is on iTunes, just search for Solti Requiem on iTunes and you'll find it (was only $9.99).  

 

Of particular note, this was recorded on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death.  As such, it was performed in the same church that it was originally performed in - St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.  And being a requiem, it was played and recorded live, at a real liturgical mass for the dead.  So you will hear bells tolling at the beginning of the recording, an ominous and perhaps most appropriate setting of the tone and reverence for what this piece was written for - a Great Mass of Death, along with prayers in Latin interspersed throughout.  If this isn't for you, you have 2 options - either don't buy this version, or buy this version and just skip over the tracks of recited prayers.  Though I think they give it an actually more appropriate context than I'd ever heard before, inspiring even more awe at the heavenly beams shining down through the clouds if you will and contemplating that moment when the end is near, and of hoping and praying that you will meet your maker.  People particularly rave about Solti's masterful interpretation of Mozart as one of the best, and about the Rex Tremendae, Domine Jesu, Dies Irae, Lux Perpetua and Confutatis specifically as being some of the most powerful, moving versions they've ever heard.  

 

But go read, and listen for yourself.  That would be best.

Some great performances are already mentioned, but my vote goes to Jordi Savall's version at Audivis

It's a 'period' performance with a lean choir and orchestra, so you don't get a big sound, but there's some very strong commitment here and as with many recordings of Savall it sounds so utterly convincing and powerful as if it couldn't be played any different. I haven't heard any recording yet that gives me this same sensation.

 

Other favorites:

Herrweweghe (Harmonia Mundi), the most dark and intense performance - intense in an introvert way, under the skin like.

Gardiner (Philips), powerfull and dramatic in an extravert way.

Sorry to bump this old tread, but can someone recommend me the best version of this CD?

 

NOTE: Please, dont recommend some of those ultra quiet live recordings, yes the sound quallity is good but you can't hear nothing..

Edited by Psyside - 12/28/11 at 5:55am

See this thread here.

Amazing thread, thanks!