'Pure intonation and fresh interpretations' - 15.07.04

[CD Pre-release: Mozart ‘Requiem’ – Tenebrae with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe]

June 2004, Warner Classics
In the last months of his life Mozart completed both his work on the “magic flute” the opera “La Clemenza di Tito” and created his world-renowned “Requiem” before he fell ill, young and poor, and died on the threshold of the 19th Century. It was not only the tragic circumstances of the composition, but its subsequent completion that made the “Requiem” a keystone for classical music.

TENEBRAE, now one of the world’s foremost vocal ensembles, dedicates a new album to this intense masterpiece. TENEBRAE enlisted for this project the help of the world renowned “Chamber Orchestra of Europe” and the choir’s own conductor and composer Nigel Short.

The album also includes a work, which Mozart wrote in 1791 for an unwell Leopold Hoffmann; the Motet “Ave Verum corpus”. Hoffmann outlived the composer and died only 1793, two years after Mozart. The Motet “Insanae et Vanae Curae” from Joseph Haydn was composed between 1805 and the death of Haydn in 1809. The beginnings of the composition lie however around 1775. Haydn reworked the central Chorus from “Il Ritorno del Tobia” several times, to create todays well-known Motet “Insanae et Vanae Curae”. Mozart, who Haydn was added as a paternal friend, recognized the strength of the early Oratoriums likewise and quoted for his part in the “Requiem” from it and from Haydns “Non Nobis Domine”. Thus the TENEBRAE / Chamber Orchestra of Europe album presents three works, which stand together in a close relationship.

The chamber orchestra with its ensemble sound excellent complemented by the young British vocal ensemble TENEBRAE who, due to their pure intonation and fresh interpretations of works from the baroque, classical and 20th century, quickly established them as one of the most sought-after choirs internationally.

Mozart “Requiem” / Ave Verum corpus / Haydn: Insanae et Vanae Curae
TENEBRAE with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe & Nigel Short

Warner Classics 2564-60190-2-1
Release Date: 5th July 2004