Mozart: Requiem

It is hard to imagine two composers with more contrasting personalities than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Anton Bruckner. The sociable bon vivant, the impulsive genius who was not averse to ruffling the feathers of authority figures, and the idiosyncratic perfectionist plagued by self-doubt. Yet they share more than just their homeland of Austria.

Bruckner’s String Quintet is one of those compositions that take one by surprise, for of all people, the great symphonist was able – albeit on this one occasion – to find enthusiasm for the small ensemble. He remains true to himself even in the chamber concert version, in which the deep religiosity of the devout Catholic is expressed even without a liturgical occasion. 

Mozart, on the other hand – whose faith was more influenced by the Enlightenment and humanism – created with his Requiem one of the most famous masses for the dead of all time. Not out of vanity, but out of reverence for the great master, Mozart’s pupil Franz Xaver Süßmeyer wished to be named as the composer of the missing parts of the Requiem. The Cologne Chamber Orchestra performs Franz Beyer’s respectful revision, which is characterised above all by a more transparent instrumentation. He also penned the arrangement for string orchestra of the Fantasy for Organ Roll – which the composer wrote as a curiosity for a waxworks museum.