It is appropriate to be a little serious when analyzing this work, given as the last of the Master...We know little and much at the same time about the Requiem. It is necessary to put a little order into all this. Let's leave aside the post-mortem rumors of the order from a mysterious stranger in July 1791... The reality of the facts are as follows: Constance is pregnant and is undergoing treatment in Baden, accompanied by Süssmayer, a student of Mozart (hence Mozart's letters which say a lot about Trazom's schedule, his state of health - excellent - and on top of the extra work with 2 Operas in progress and a Concerto for Stadler and a Requiem Mass for Count Walsseg, in memory of his recently deceased Wife...{He will ask his student to do the seccos recitatives for him Titus Opera to unload him a little) During the entire period, until the month of October, he does work that fascinates him, especially the 2 operas... He will even travel to Prague with Constance, who has given birth and 'the donkey' Süssmayer, to direct Titus in the presence of the emperor who is at the origin of the order... In short, there is not the slightest health problem that threatens the Master. However, for this Requiem he wants a work worthy of his reputation and the task will not be easy with his working method, because when he no longer finds a musical page, he prefers to rewrite everything rather than search in vain...Thus, he is still working on a work that he is directing in November in his Masonic Lodge and shortly after mid-November he will be forced to take to his bed...It is certain that he knows that he is going to die, so it is appropriate to take into account his working method as a composer: he has a so-called working part and a finishing part. The so-called finishing part will be entrusted to Süssmayer, because his musical writing is the closest to the Master and will be the one which will be delivered to the Count Walsseg....For the working score, several people will work on it, with the Master and after his death: EYbler (who suffered a serious stroke while conducting this Requiem and who did not worry about question, but had his little idea, on the end of the composition), Süssmayer 'the donkey' (as Mozart commonly made fun of his student), Freystadler, Abbot Staler...The latter and Eybler are surely the most gifted, but nothing in their musical work reflects the slightest talent at the level of the Master...Also it is appropriate to think that Mozart had given everyone how He saw the work to carry out this work successfully, during their visit to his accommodation (a little over 15 days) Afterwards we have the interested accounts of Constance, of her new husband Nissen, the declarations of Süssmayer to the Publisher of the work (in 1800) declaring himself no less as the Complete Composer of the Requiem... I believe that it is appropriate to have the wisdom of Eybler, of Chopin (who asked to be buried with the Requiem) and to avoid playing the cheap intellectual to also make a name on the back of MOZART, seeking the impossible...!
Amen fugue get's a little bogged down a few times but a good effort. It's not realistic to expect anything as fluently expressive as the Kyrie Eleison. Osanna fugue began promisingly but I struggled with the abrupt transition to a homophonic waltz. Thank you for sharing this uniquely compelling completion.
Cohrs takes an interesting direction with his Sanctus revision, he aknowledges the harmonic connection with the Dies Irae, but I think Mozart would not have used such a direct quote from a previous movement. The recomposed Agnus Dei is the most radical take I've heard, and it sounds absolutely beautiful! There will never be a fully authentic version of Mozart's Mass of the dead, but Cohrs makes his version a little more "definitive" sounding as he skillfully combines the efforts of previous completions. I totally hear Eybler's contributions in the Sequentia, and fragments of Levin in the Sanctus/Osanna.
why're the strings different in the introitus, at the part where it's "requiem aeternam" theme against "doonaa dooooonaaaa eis domine" is there any new evidence that that wasn't written by mozart???
also idkkk about adding a third to the end of the Kyrie, I mean it's probably not out of bounds for Mozart at that time period but it just makes me feel weird lol
@@lazarus_alonsius Yes, since 2013 new evidence has come out that suggests the whole greeinsh-gray ink in the Requiem Aeternam might not be by Mozart's hand. If you go to the manuscript you can notice that there is a weird change in the direction of the stems where there is the usual (and quite bizarre) drop in the ostinato happens, right where the ink changes, if you scan more you will find even more diferences between Mozart's black ink and the gray ink all over the movement. For more, cf. Simon Andrew's article "Is Mozart the author of the orchestration of the Requiem Aeternam?", you can find it to read on jstor and on academia.edu for free.
Haha, I guess I am! the Requiem inspires and intrigues me at many levels, how the creative genius of a single person has created such a varied amount of interpretations by scholars for decades.
Julian X Oh yes. In not being able to complete this work, Mozart unwittingly gave all of us probably the greatest gift he could have given - a chance to dive into his mind and try to see if we can figure him out.
@@F-Man Personally I would make a remaster of the Levin one, who are quite perfect, as a conductor maybe one day I will do that ! This men is incredible and over-talented in Mozart's music
I had never heard Dr. Cohrs' completion before - I absolutely love it! Is it what Mozart intended? Well, we'll never know - but this man certainly knows a thing or two about what the great master might have liked!
Cohrs states in his notes that the Amen fugue was modeled on the Amen from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. I strongly disagree with this choice, especially because that work's format is alien to the Viennese-style of church music that Mozart was writing. The fugue also suffers from the same issue as Maunder in that it modulates rather unconvincingly (Dm/Fm/Gm/A) and even ends in D minor - not properly resolving on a major chord like all such choral fugues of this period did.
+hollowchatter I agree with you about Maunder's part. To this day I still wonder why Maunder's Amen is the most admired of the bunch judging the amount of Un-Mozartian qualities present in the completion. Cohrs's completion, is far from the best, and while it almost seems to emulate Maunder's version I find it much more entertaining, because the instrumentation is more imaginative and cleverly placed, like Mozart would do, and the endings in both the Amen and the Hosanna are quite daring/imposing, one of Mozart's fugal trademarks.
@@hollowchatter7429 It is important to note that Cohrs' amen fugue doesn't contain modulations just like Levin, since, as pointed out by Levin himself: "18th century fugues of this kind remain in the same key, providing a stable conclusion not just to the movement (Lacrimosa), but to the entire section (the Sequence)”
We will never know what Mozart intended, so Joseph Eybler's version is the most authentic you will get. After Mozart's death Eybler was the first to look at the requiem. He himself was very respectful and was working along Mozart's lines (filling the orchestration) and stopped within the Lachrymosa ("where Mozart 'died'"). Constanze Mozart, Mozart's widow, did want more and gave the manuscript to the selfish and arrogant Franz Xaver Süssmayr , who reorchestrated and finished it in without any respect to his former teacher.
