Mountains of Mozart

Abstract

In this anniversary year of the birth of Mozart, the recording industry has inundated the marketplace with new recordings, reissues and novelties, although the deluge has not been as abundant as in the 20ooth anniversary commemorations of 1991, when Philips released their complete Mozart Edition, or during the ensuing decade, when production of new recordings by this composerentire cycles of vocal and instrumental works-appeared on a scale eclipsed only by that of the Bach year in 2000. With the continuing developments in performance practice research and the increase in the number of professional ensembles since the early 199os, revisions of existing recorded interpretations have been made by new groups, and lesser-known repertory has reached the public arena. Among the plethora of recent releases figure many noteworthy discs of vocal and instrumental music. A prominent contribution is a new reading of the Mozart: Requiem (K617 K617180, rec 2005, 52') in its standard Stissmayr version, recorded live by Jean-Claude Malgoire with the Kantorei Saarlouis and La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy. Its most distinguishing feature is the addition of a 'Libera me' movement, 'with which the Roman Church ends the Office of the Dead', composed by Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm (17781858) 'to follow Mozart's Requiem at the performance of that immortal masterpiece in the church of the Brotherhood of St Cecilia' in Rio de Janeiro on 19 December 1819, possibly the first performance of the Requiem on South American soil. As detailed by Alain Pacquier in his splendid accompanying essay, the manuscript of Neukomm's Libera me was recently rediscovered in the Biblioteca Nacional of Brazil, where it had languished almost unnoticed. Neukomm, a student of Joseph and Michael Haydn, was a prolific composer, orchestrator and arranger. He studied and worked as a musician throughout Europe, was a chapelmaster in St Petersburg from 1804 to 1809, and in 1816 sailed to Brazil as part of the retinue of a diplomatic mission to the court of Emperor Jodo VI at Rio de Janeiro (which had been established there since 1808 with the self-imposed exile of the Portuguese Braganga dynasty). During his time there, he became associated with the Brotherhood of St Cecilia, and forged a relationship with the priest and composer Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, mestre de capela at the Chapel Royal of Brazil, who conducted the 1819 performance of the Requiem. Neukomm's Brazilian sojourn lasted five years, after which time he returned to France, remaining there until his death.