Claudio Abbado & Lucerne Festival Orchestra - Mozart Requiem

This video of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra,with his handpicked musicians,from 2012 meets up to the high standards needed for this piece, one of thegreatest vocal works in the repetoire.No surprise.The Maestro, though relatively unheralded when compared to von Karajan or Bernstein has consistently led performances that hold their own with those of the more famous masters of the 20th century and since.Equally compelling are all of the voices and,too, the video presentation here.Never weak,always clear in form and with deep emotion,this disc is like a shining light that will burn forever.Not true, alas, for the Maestro,who left this world on 1/20/14.It is our great loss,as this becomes,as it had for Mozart himself,his own requiem.But it is only his mortal coil that has left us.The light of his spirit will indeed live on, leading those who listen, to the glories of some of the most beautiful and profound music ever written, and ever heard.RIP to Maestro Abbado,one of those rare ones in whose hands a baton was like a magic wand that elicited beauty that touched the soul.He will always be remembered as one of the greats,always be missed.This disc is a an example of why,like a monument to Mozart, and to him.

Very nice recording.

outstanding

beautifully filmed. Sound is terrific.

merveillous, thank you very much :

wonderful

Very good sound and video. A near perfect disc. Abbado gives a performance that’s excellent with excellent soloists, choir and orchestra. I confess I prefer the sussmayr completed requiem, but I have no criticism of the performance here.The major criticism I have is the version. I prefer Sir Colin Davis bluray version. Its video is inferior (as expected from 1984), but Davis performs the more interesting Süssmayr version. Plus, as good as Abbado’s soloists are, Davis has Elisabeth Mathis and Peter Schreier among others who are remarkably good-and probably the best on record.Have a listen/watch to Abbado’s 2 and 9 Mahler. I doubt you will see/ hear better. But for the Mozart requiem I prefer Sir Colin Davis.

There are a lot of polemics and speculation about Mozart's Requiem, which I consider nothing more than so much pedantic verbiage. I am not an expert on Mozart's Requiem, nor do I wish to be. The only important thing to me is whether or not I like a piece of music and am moved by it and not whether it was'' perfectly'' finished in Mozart's style or whether it was rendered too slow or too fast by the conductor. Nor am I interested in some critic's academic opinion about whether a conductor's or musician's interpretation of any musical work is true to the composer's ''intentions'' especially in light of the fact that often such analysis is mere speculation. As far as I am concerned, intellectual cerebral analysis has nothing to do with the ''soul'' of a performance.About this this Blu-ray version of the Requiem, I can say that, with respect to the music and the Abbado's rendering, I like this recording and am moved by it.But liking a piece of music and appreciating the rendering of it are not my only criteria. I consider the sound quality of the recording just as important. I find it very hard to listen to a poor recording no matter how much I may like the music.The quality of this recording could have been truly great (which would have earned it 5 stars from me), if only someone had paid attention to the sopranos. The sopranos, sometimes, are overpowering, very nearly drowning out the voices of the rest of the choir. I do not know if this was the case in the actual performance and Abbado just was not paying close enough attention to what the sopranos were doing (perhaps this imbalance was not even present in the actual performance) or if, on the other hand it was the fault of the sound engineers who either do not understand their role well enough to realize that they should be seeking equilibrium and balance in the final product, or, perhaps, do not understand music well enough to realize that, in a choir, balance is essential and no voice or voices should overpower any of the others. What I do know is that in either case ... Abbado's fault or the engineers' fault (and I sincerely hope it was not Abbado's fault) ... this vocal balance is an important detail that was overlooked.I have 3 other versions of this Requiem, all of them SACDs. While all different, I like the music and the rendering in all of them (I do not see ''different'' as being ''better'' or ''worse'' and I guess I am easy to please). But I have not been satisfied with the sound quality of those recordings, hence I bought this Blu-ray version. This Blu-ray could easily have been the best because for the most part (when those sopranos are not singing or when they are holding back and singing more in balance with the rest of the choir) with respect to all other parameters the sound quality it is very good. And consequently I like it better than any of the SACDs I have.But I do have one other objection:When the choir is singing at full volume, I can hardly hear the orchestra at all. The musicians are playing like mad, but, for the most part, I can only hear the bass truly well enough and I have to strain to hear the other instruments, especially the violins. The engineers should have paid attention to that detail as well.Since the whole point of Blu-ray over CD or SACD is that it is the recording medium of the highest quality we have today (with the exception, perhaps, of a good vinyl recording) and presumably since this is why one would spend considerably more for a Blu-ray than for any of the other versions, the lack of attention to these details in not pardonable, so I confer only 3 stars to this recording of Mozart's Requiem.

映画「アマデウス」で有名な所謂「モツ・レク」・・・フルート、オーボエやクラリネット、ホルンと云ったオケで主要な管楽器がない曲でここまで有名な曲も珍しい！（クラリネットの代わりにバゼット・ホルン）その分、オケではマイナーなトロンボーンは大活躍・・・「不思議なラッパの響き」のトロンボーンSOLOは特に有名、RCO首席トロンボーンのライエンさんのSOLOは聴きモノ！！それはさておき、演奏はアバドらしい慈愛に満ちた超ソフト路線・・・好き嫌いはあるかも知れないが、レクイエム（安息を）の意味を踏まえると、こう云う超ソフト路線もありカモ！歌手陣も豪華、合唱も素晴しい、個人的にはお薦め！！

演奏は、ビブラートを抑えて、透明な感じで、とても美しいものと感じました。バッハの時代のような演奏の仕方というのでしょうか？　未完になってしまったものを弟子のジュスマイヤーが完成させたと聞いていまして、今回バイヤー版、レヴィン版などもあることを初めて知りました。　ラクリモーサより後の方の曲に少しだけ違いがあり、大ミサ曲のような結びや、モーツァルトらしい雰囲気が感じられる部分がありました。　モーツァルトのレクイエムは、ベームやリヒターが指揮した演奏を好んで聴いてきました。　是非ＣＤを出していただきたいものです。（車で聴くことが多いので）　この演奏の一部が某公共放送の番組で放送され、全部聴いてみたくなったので購入することにしました。

12月5日に注文し、12月22日に届くとのこと。ちょっとかかるなとは思いましたが、実際の到着は30日でした。楽しみに家族で見たところ、「画像が汚いね。音質もイマイチじゃない？」と残念な感想。以前ＴＶで放映していたのをＨＤに保存していて何度も見ていたので、それに比べると確かに違う気がします。なぜなんだろう？でも内容は文句なしに素敵です！なんといってもソリストの方々が最高です。レクイエムは大好きでいろんなＣＤ持っていますがこの演奏が私のＮＯ１です。アバドさん、もういらっしゃらないのがとても寂しいです。。。

Even with the short timing on the DVD this is great value. A superb performance with non wobbly soloists. The use of the Beyer edition (with Levin's Sanctus) shows that Abbado has thought closely about this work.This performance is as near a realisation of perfect music as anyone could get.

I FOUND THE BPERFORMANCE SUPERB !!I FOLLOW EVERY CONCERT CONDUCTED BY THE LATE CLAUDIO ABBADO -THE GREATEST CONDUCTOR OF OUR TIME.