Requiem

Mozart's last work, the Requiem Mass in D minor K626, receives a strong performance from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Mozart specialist Sir Colin Davis in a classic recording made in 1984. Popular legend has it that the Requiem was commissioned by a mysterious stranger, fuelling Mozart's obsession that the piece was his own Mass. However the probable truth is much less dark, that one Count Walsegg, who had a well-known penchant for commissioning works which he attempted to pass off as his own, commissioned it upon the death of his wife. Mozart died in 1791, before completing the piece. It was later completed by one of his students, Franz Süssmayr, at the request of Mozart's wife Constanze. This live recording from the Herkulessaal in Munich features Sir Colin Davis conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra with the outstanding Peter Schreier and Edith Mathis as well as ever-popular Welsh bass Gwynne Howell.