Conductor and ensemble leader
Jordi Savall
recorded
Mozart
's
Requiem in D minor, D. 626
, in 1991 when historically oriented performances of
were not so common. That recording has remained successful, and even in 1991,
Savall
had a better feel for
than any number of other conductors in the historical performance field. However, this 2022 reading with
Le Concert des Nations
(26 instrumentalists) and the
Capella Nacional de Catalunya
(24 singers) is preferable. It is not cut from a fundamentally different cloth, but
adds immediacy, intensity, and speed. Audiences have responded well, putting the new album on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023. A chunk of the credit goes to the
Alia Vox
engineering staff working at the Chateau de Cardona in Catalonia. The recording has modest forces, but the miking is close up, and the sound is that of a much larger ensemble. It is really an exemplary essay in how to avoid the wan sound afflicting so many undersized ensembles that disappear into vast church spaces. As he has in other Classical-period recordings,
takes most movements at unusually fast speeds, pushing his youthful singers and his brass players to the edge but not beyond it, and the balance among the forces remains careful and clear. The big dark movements here -- the Dies irae and the Confutatis -- have an intensity matched in few other recordings of the
Requiem
. The soloists are not extraordinary, but this is not an operatic work, and it is probably best not to have them stand out. Entering his ninth decade,
continues to produce distinctive and often moving readings of Classical and Romantic repertory in addition to music in his core specialties. ~ James Manheim