It probably was inevitable that just before the close of the “Mozart Year” one last Requiem would appear, and here it is. Not that the world needed it–but apparently conductor Christian Thielemann needed to do it “as his contribution to the anniversary.” Before you get very far into the performance, which follows the Süssmayr version, you realize that aside from the large-scale live concert circumstances, which likely pleased the audience well enough, Thielemann’s contribution is really nothing special. It’s also not terrible or self-indulgent or hampered by poor soloists, but neither is it particularly exciting or informed of key stylistic attributes that make movements such as the Recordare and Lacrimosa so affecting.
Rather, this is a performance led by one who seems not to have really studied or gotten below the surface of the work, a conductor neither attuned to Mozart nor sensitive to his chorus. Tempos are sometimes overly deliberate, the orchestral playing accordingly square; at other times the pacing is just about right, the singing and playing appropriately buoyant. But the overall impression of this performance is of a functional, workmanlike effort that satisfied the demands of an event, recorded not because it should have been, but because it could be.
Has the “Rex tremendae” ever been more benignly uttered? And surely the ensemble could have been tighter in the Domine Jesu and Agnus Dei? And what of the occasional skewed balances where particular instruments or voices suddenly emerge from the mix? There are too many fine recordings of this well-loved work to grant this one serious consideration as a viable choice. No, it’s not bad–but it’s not necessary either.
