Two illustrious composers opposed by their Requiem? When in 1791 Mozart (36 years old) composed the one that will remain unfinished by his own death, it was in response to a commission from the eccentric Count Von Walseg. Mozart will never hear the music. Salieri was at the height of his fame at the age of 41, celebrated for his operas from Paris and Milan to Rome and of course Vienna, where he was Court Composer and Director of the Italian Opera. In 1804, when he stopped his operatic career, he composed his Requiem, strictly intended for his own funeral: it will be performed in 1825! Hervé Niquet makes these two monuments of the Viennese liturgy sound brilliantly. What if Mozart had thought of his own funeral in his sublime Requiem? What more fantastic music to celebrate a genius!
Starring
Valentina Nafornita
Ambroisine Bré
Robin Tritschler
Andreas Wolf
Choir & Orchestra Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet Music director
Recorded November 20-23, 2021 at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles.
"For more than forty years now, I have been asking myself whether it is wise to play sacred music in concert, outside its context. During these performances, one admires the genius of the authors, the know-how and the skill of the performers, the illustration of the texts and the sacred poems; one is impressed by the emotion released by a singer and an organ as well as by a group of 80 artists. Entire halls are concentrated to receive these works, full cathedrals applaud wildly, but I can't help feeling that something is lost, forgotten or ignored.
For many years I have not wanted to perform the lessons of Darkness outside the Easter season. I miss the weight and anxiety of playing this repertoire at Christmas or in July.
So how do I get the recording of the Salieri and Mozart's Requiems? I don't know!
The funeral, with its funereal pomp, is the summit of the theater since death, the real one, is staged, and not that of a mythological hero crushed by a cyclops or a shepherdess irradiated by Jupiter. "
Hervé Niquet
