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Requiem
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Requiem

Kuijken String Quartet

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: SACD
Barcode: 0608917212129
barcode
Catalog number: SACC 72121
Releasedate: 01-01-03
 Transcriptions for string quartet by the composer or someone else was common practice in Mozarts time. In that light this string-version of Mozart's Requiem is nothing special. What makes it special, is the circumstance of the original Requiem itself. It is known that Mozart left the majority of the work incompleted, and that on request of Mozart's widow, his pupil Süssmayer did the finishing job. Where one's work ends and the other's starts, no-one knows. This 'skeleton-version' of the Requiem, however, fully preserves the eloquence of Mozart's music and therefore perhaps proves that the Requiem contains more of the masters own composing than we can objectively establish. But incomplete as the Requiem is, Mozart's universal genius radiates through the notes in any version. And if anyone can bring the radiation to the surface in this version, no one better than the Kuijken Kwartet.