Mozart: Requiem.(Sound Recording Review)

Mozart: Requiem. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 82876 58705 2.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an old hand at reinterpreting classical music from an authentic point of view, so it comes as no surprise that he would return to Mozart's Requiem once more, this time with the Concentus Musicus Wien. Using the version completed by Mozart's copyist, Xavier Sussmayr, as amended more recently in the new critical edition by Franz Beyer, Harnoncourt produces a ready answer to those who would suggest that nothing new can be done with the old warhorse.

The conductor tells us in a booklet note that he quit performing in an orchestra to begin leading his own band when he decided he just couldn't play things like the Requiem in "harmless, sugary interpretations" anymore. His present performance, therefore, is vibrant, spirited, emblazoned with fiery color, his orchestra and his soloists--Christine Schafer, Bernarda Fink, Kurt Streit, and Gerald Finley--encouraged to produce an impassioned response.

This is not say it entirely eclipses Claudio Abbado's equally animated account with the Berlin Philharmonic of a few years earlier, but because ...