'The best performance I have ever heard. Unmissable!' - 27.04.04

[CD Review: Mozart ‘Requiem’] Simon Bates: 27 April 2004, CD of the week, Classic FM

Every weekday at 10.40am on UK radio station ‘Classic FM’ Simon Bates showcases the ‘CD of the Week’. At the end of April Simon previewed a ‘fabulous new recording’ of Mozart’s Requiem…

“Tenebrae, one of the world’s foremost vocal ensembles, dedicates a new album to three intensely spiritual works, including Mozart’s Requiem. They’re joined by the 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. The Motet, Insanae et Vanae Curae from Joseph Haydn was composed between 1805 and the death of Haydn in 1809. Thus this CD presents three works, which stand together in a close relationship.”

Simon Bates says:

“I have loved this work ever since I saw the film Amadeus and here it’s given the best performance I have ever heard. Unmissable!”

“It’s heavenly stuff. The primary reason for choosing it as CD of the week was the quality of it and the fact that it is actually weepingly wonderful”.