In a time when authentic Classical practices and scholarly editions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem in D minor are considered de rigueur, it's instructive to hear how this work was sometimes performed in the middle of the 20th century, before the advent of historically informed performances. Helmut Koch's 1962 performance with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Requiem in D minor by Mozart will strike many modern listeners as an old-fashioned rendition of the work, an artifact of a mid-20th century ...
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In a time when authentic Classical practices and scholarly editions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem in D minor are considered de rigueur, it's instructive to hear how this work was sometimes performed in the middle of the 20th century, before the advent of historically informed performances. Helmut Koch's 1962 performance with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Requiem in D minor by Mozart will strike many modern listeners as an old-fashioned rendition of the work, an artifact of a mid-20th century style of interpreting large religious works with exaggerated piety. Using the time-honored completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and delivered with extreme gravitas, the Requiem has very slow tempos in all but a few sections, the orchestral playing is weighty, and the choral parts are quite thick because of the large-scale choir. The sound quality is a little overloaded and distorted in the loudest choral movements, but is otherwise unremarkable. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi
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