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Mozart – Requiem & Maurerische Trauermusik - La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations Jordi Savall (Recorded in 1991)

Duration:  50'50"
Recorded in August 1991 at l'Eglise des Dominicains à Guebwiller, France.

пароль (p/w) - euphony

Н.К. Рерих

As for who really wrote the Requiem, there is no doubt that it is largely the work of Mozart, though only some sections are in his hand.  Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766‐1803) is the principal secondary actor.  Sophie Haibel (Constanze’s sister) confirms Nissen’s account that Süssmayr received instructions from Mozart: 
". . .  Süssmayr was at Mozart’s bedside. The well‐known Requiem lay on the quilt and Mozart was explaining to him how, in his opinion, he ought to finish it, when he was gone . . . His last movement was an attempt to express with his mouth the drum passages in the Requiem."

Vincent  Novello  also  records  these  events  following  his  conversations  with Constanze in 1829:
"A short time before his death [Mozart] sang with Madame [Constanze] and Süssmayr the Requiem.  Several of the movements oppressed him to tears. He wrote the Recordare and principal parts first, saying, ‘If I do not live these are of the most consequence.’ When they had finished he called Süssmayr to him and desired that if he died before he had completed the work, the fugue he had written at the commencement [Kyrie] might be repeated and pointed out  where  and  how  other  parts  should  be  filled  up  that  were already sketched.  It was in consequence of this, that Süssmayr afterwards wrote to Breitkopf of Leipzig that he had written the principal part of this Requiem, but as Madame justly observed, anyone could have written what he had done, after the sketching and precise directions of Mozart, and nothing Süssmayr
ever did, before or after, proved him to have any talent of a similar kind."

Of course, Constanze had to ensure that the commission was completed, and in so far as it was possible, as Mozart’s own work.  The manuscript sent to Count von Walsegg even carried a forgery of Mozart’s signature, penned by Süssmayr, whose hand was very similar to Mozart’s.  Constanze was right that Süssmayr’s talent was well below that of Mozart’s, but Süssmayr was not incorrect in claiming a significant level of authorship. As a matter of family  honour, Constanze may well have been playing down the role of Süssmayr, whilst he, Süssmayr, may have exaggerated the level of his contribution. 

But what was the level of this contribution? To abbreviate a long and complex story:  Mozart completed the opening movement (Requiem aeternam), and the vocal parts of the ensuing fugue (Kyrie eleison) with indications of instrumental scoring.  He also wrote the vocal material of the movements of the Sequenz (Dies irae,  Tuba  mirum,  Rex  tremendae,  Recordare,  Confutatis,  Lacrimosa – here stopping  at  bar  8),  again  indicating  some  details  of  the  instrumentation, including for instance the trombone solo at the beginning of Tuba mirum.  The Offertorium’s vocal material (Domine Jesu Christi and Hostias et preces) is also in his hand.  All this material was reviewed and then completed by other hands, not only Süssmayr’s (the principal contributor to the completion) but, at an earlier stage, also those of Franz Jacob Freystädtler (who orchestrated  the Kyrie), and Joseph Eybler (who fleshed out the greater part of the instrumentation of the Sequenz movements).  All three of these musicians had been pupils of Mozart, and members of an inner circle of professional acquaintances on whom Constanze could naturally call to deal with the problem of completing the commission. Süssmayr’s predominance as the compositional assistant in the project emerges in the final movements ‐ in the orchestration of the Offertorium, and then rather more problematically in the composition of the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.  As the historical record suggests, the return to Mozart’s music for the closing Communio (which reprises the opening two movements of the score) followed an instruction left by the composer to Süssmayr.

These later movements (Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei) have been the subject of particular debate among musicians and musicologists. Some have seen in them infelicities (voice‐leading crudities, short‐winded fugues, curious tonal planning, lack of invention), all said to be the inevitable and regrettable
consequence of having a next‐to‐competent hack complete a masterrwork.

EDWARD HIGGINBOTTOM - MOZART’S REQUIEM, 2011