Clouded in myth and speculation, Mozart’s Requiem remains a veritable mystery to this day. The work was incomplete when Mozart died in 1791 and thus begat the centuries of confusion and controversy that were to follow.
The mystery…
The mystery starts with a somewhat shady Count who secretly commissioned the work, likely hoping to pass it off as his own. Mozart’s devoted and financially-driven wife needed to keep her husband’s death a secret in order to obtain the final commission payment. She enlisted Mozart’s pupil, Franz Süssmayr, to complete the work in Mozart’s style – a monumental task he took on by gleaning Mozart’s thoughts from scraps of paper and previously-written thematic material.
In the 200-plus-years since, dozens of completions surfaced based on excruciating levels of academic and musical research. Editors argue about what they believe Mozart would have done based on performance practices of the day, Mozart’s other work, and comparisons to those sections in the Requiem that Mozart had completed.
When programming Mozart’s Requiem, conductors must start by choosing which completion to utilize. Arguably the most popular is Süssmayr’s 1792 version. But with so many editions from which to choose, selecting a completion can be a conductor’s obsession, nightmare, or both.
Maestro Aram Demirjian had to make this choice for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s performances of the work in the upcoming Moxley-Carmichael Masterworks Series. Demirjian describes the journey he took to get to his ultimate edition as both “fun and excruciating.” Within each completion he studied, he became attached to various “compelling musical decisions” that had been made by the editors.
He ultimately selected the 1993 version by famed pianist, composer, and music scholar Robert Levin.
“Anyone attending the concert will hear the same Mozart Requiem they know and love…”
“There are a number of lenses through which to view the issues the Requiem completions present – that of scholar, historian, music theorist,” said Demirjian, “But I view the work through the lens of a performer. While I greatly admire the Süssmayr version, it presents some practical obstacles that Levin’s completion mitigates.”
In a wonderful point of connection, Demirjian has a personal attachment to the Levin version. “I admit there’s a bit of bias inherent in my choice,” said Demirjian. “Robert Levin was one of my professors at Harvard. I sang his editions of the Requiem and Mass in C minor while a student, and even had the honor of conducting a performance of Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 that he gave during my junior year.”
Another connection between Demirjian and Levin is their utmost respect for Süssmayr’s work. Demirjian believes we owe Süssmayr a huge debt, saying, “Without his timely work, Mozart’s Requiem might never have reached our ears, and we wouldn’t have the relative luxury of debating questions of its authenticity and adherence to Mozart’s style.”
This respect of Süssmayr played into Demirjian’s decision to use Levin’s version, which “does not dismiss the classic Süssmayr completion out of hand as some 20th and 21st century editions have.” Demirjian points out that Levin writes the following in the preface to his edition: The historical and performance tradition of the Requiem demands respect…the goal was to revise not as much, but as little as possible.
One area Levin clearly chose to tackle was the density of the orchestration. Demirjian notes, “Quite simply, Levin’s version makes it easier to hear and understand the singers because you don’t have trombones or thickly layered strings muddying the sound at key moments.”
Demirjian also gravitates to places where Levin “polished Süssmayr’s framework but still stayed within it.” He cites examples, such as “the satisfyingly acrobatic violin writing in the Sanctus that replaces the rather plodding repeated chords of the Süssmayr” or the transition from the Agnus Dei to the Lux Aeterna “which bears a striking resemblance to Süssmayr, but with a harmonic pacing I find truer to Mozart and more dramatically captivating.”
Versions aside, the work remains Mozart’s Requiem. As Demirjian clearly states, “Anyone attending the concert will hear the same Mozart Requiem they know and love – the one that lives in popular culture through movies like Amadeus and countless television scores – but perhaps they will hear it even more clearly. It’s the same gem, with a few extra facets through which light can shine.”
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra— “Mozart Requiem”
Thursday/Friday, April 20/21, 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Downtown Knoxville
Tickets and Information
—PROGRAM—
TJ Cole: Death of the Poet
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Sinfonietta No. 1 (In memory of Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem
—FEATURING—
• Soloists: Abigail Santos Villalobos, soprano; Emily Marvosh, alto; Norman Shankle, tenor; David Crawford, bass
• Knoxville Choral Society under the direction of Dr. John Orr
