Despite the
Requiem for Mozart album title, the main attraction here is a work begun as early as 1776 and expanded and repurposed several times, including, in early 1792, a memorial service for
Mozart in the city where he achieved some of his greatest triumphs. Those who argue for the historical authenticity of chamber-sized performances of Classical-era choral works should note the total forces of 120. Actually, it is interesting to contemplate what might have happened if the work had really been written as a requiem for
Mozart, perhaps even with
Mozart's own grim Requiem in D minor torso, K. 626, in mind. As the work stands now, it's an illustration of the breezy quality of so much sacred music of the late 18th century. If you've been surprised by the pleasantly unserious music of some of
Haydn's and
Mozart's masses (although certainly not the Requiem), sample the Sequence, the Dies Irae, on track 2 of this album; it's positively peppy. High points of the program includes some opera-type solos nicely handled by American soprano
Marcía Porter; the stretches she and the soprano section of the
Prague Singers have to make to reach the high B flats are perhaps the result of the music being performed at a higher pitch than it would have been in its own time. In general the choral singing and the playing by the Camerata Filarmonica Bohemia are attractively clear and rich. Composer Antonio Rosetti, despite his name, was a native Bohemian, and the rest of the music on the album gives a taste of that musically rich region in
Mozart's time; another highlight is a Symphony in E flat major in three substantial movements (tracks 8-10). Nicely recorded in Super Audio sound by the Ars Produktion label, this release is of interest to lovers and students of the Classical period.