Mozart: Requiem - Paisiello: Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon

Le Concert de la Loge, Chœur de Chambre de Namur and Julien Chauvin

Released on 10-03-2023 by Alpha Classics
Main artists: Le Concert de la Loge Choeur de Chambre de Namur Julien Chauvin
Genre: Klassiek

Digital booklet

Available in

24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Language available : english

This recording by the Choeur de Chambre de Namur and the historical performance group Le Concert de la Loge doesn't present Mozart's Requiem, K. 626, as Mozart wrote it. However, the unfinished work has been in textual flux from the beginning, with multiple completions and Constanze Mozart telling several different stories of Mozart's last days. So the lack of faithfulness to the text is not a big problem. What is heard here is a version made for the work's premiere in Paris, which did not occur until 1804. Circumstances dictated what would now be considered outrageous alterations to Mozart's music. A popular Introitus by Niccolò Jommelli was added to the beginning. The Offertory was omitted, as were all the sections completed by others, and the Amen from the Sequence, which is replaced by the final "Cum sancto spiritu" fugue. There were no basset horns in Paris, so those were replaced by English horns. Most strikingly, the trombone solo in the "Tuba mirum" was apparently thought too rough and was replaced with a wind choir passage. It is all an interesting part of the reception history of one of Mozart's most popular works, but what makes it listenable is that this is a strong performance that respects the work's large dimensions even as some of it is being cut. The Choeur de Chambre de Namur offers power that makes its membership of 23 singers sound like a larger group, and conductor Julien Chauvin brings focus to the historical winds. Also intriguing is the Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon, the mass for the coronation of Napoleon, an unexpectedly perky and seldom heard work by Giovanni Paisiello. (Napoleon's funeral featured the Mozart Requiem.) Those simply wanting a recording of the Mozart Requiem should note the asterisk on the cover and beware, but this is an interesting musical slice of Napoleon's age. The sound from the Arsenal de Metz fits the music well. This album made classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.

© James Manheim /TiVo

More info

Mozart: Requiem - Paisiello: Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon

Le Concert de la Loge

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From 13,50€/month

Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 (Paris 1804 Version) (Niccolò Jommelli)

I. Introït

Chantal Santon-Jeffery