Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem

Mozart's Requiem—his final work, famously commissioned by a mysterious buyer and completed after the composer's death by a pupil—is the centerpiece of this Salzburg concert for the 2017 Mozartwoche (Mozart Week). Marc Minkowski conducts an expressive performance by soloists Genia Kühmeier, Elisabeth Kulman, Julien Behr, and Charles Dekeyser, backed by the Salzburger Bachchor and the original-instrument group Les Musiciens de Louvre. Filling out the program, Minkowski adds an early Mozart Miserere and Handel's The Ways of Zion Do Mourn, concluding with Mozart's Ave verum corpus. The concert is performed at the Salzburg Felsenreitschule—an imposing, tiered stone structure occasionally used for opera productions but here reflecting its original function as an equestrian riding school. As the music plays, the horses and equerries of the Académie équestre nationale du domaine de Versailles ride back and forth across the sand-covered stage in formations choreographed by the group's director, Bartabas. Connoisseurs of expert horsemanship will especially appreciate this, but Mozart fans will also likely admire the skill with which the riders direct their steeds to move in tandem with the music. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on the Blu-ray release) and PCM stereo, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)