Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Requiem in D minor, K626 (Süssmayr completion)
Fazil Say (b.1971)
Mozart ve Meviana, Op. 110 for soli, choir & orchestra
Fatma Said (soprano), Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano), Pene Pati (tenor), Alexandros Stavrakakis (bass)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/Michael Sanderling
rec. 2024, KKL Luzern, Switzerland
Libretti in Latin (Mozart) & Turkish (Say) with English, French and German translations
Warner Classics 2173275472 [68]

Having produced a survey of over forty recordings of Mozart’s Requiem I inevitably bring some baggage to my review of this new issue from Switzerland. I was not expecting that survey to attract such interest but it has turned out to be the most read of all those I have undertaken, so I would speculate that this new recording will arouse considerable interest and I must say that on first hearing I was immediately struck by its freshness, directness and energy. It is not a “period” performance but it is lean and propulsive, with tempi on the urgent side. The choir is especially incisive, not especially large but sufficiently weighty to lend drama to proceedings; the soloists are excellent and the direction unfailingly sensitive. I especially like the bass’s gnarly sound and the effulgence of the mezzo-soprano’s tone but both the soprano and tenor are lithe, vibrant and agile. Fatma Said has a light, pure sound and Pene Pati is suitably animated in the “Mors stupebit” without being the last word in heroic timbre. The blending in ensemble is excellent and balances between voices and instruments ideal. Some highpoints are the furious attack of the choir on the “Confutatis” section (track 7) and the “Quam olim Abrahae” passages at the end of the Offertorium. Their divisions in the fast runs are impressively unsmudged. They employ authentic Germanic pronunciation of the Latin and their diction is pellucid.

A major factor in determining the popularity of this issue could be its pairing here with a new and complementary work by the pianist and composer Fazil Say, his Mozart ve Mevlana (Mozart and Our Master). It is a setting of two poems by the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi, ‘Yine Gel’ (Come Again) and ‘Yedi Öğüt’ (The Seven Principles), translated into Turkish from the original Persian, which advocate tolerance and generosity of spirit. The piece uses the same forces as the Mozart but with the addition of Anatolian cultural elements such as the ney flute and kudüm drums.

Evidently Say himself sees his work as a “bridge of love and friendship” between the East and West, combining Sufi poetry with the classical Requiem genre – an ambitious and indeed topical aim given current world tensions. Of course, there is a tenuous link between Mozart and Turkey in his occasional use of “Janissary music”.

The first song begins in reassuringly gentle, melodic mode before a haunting riff for the flute and the choir intoning over a heavy, rather menacing, rhythmic drum ostinato. Just occasionally whisps of Mozartian allusion are discernible but I cannot say that the links are strongly apparent. For me, there is sometimes something of a disjuncture between the violence of the music and the gentle entreaty of the sung text but the coda for the solo quartet has a mystical, even transcendent, quality.

The second song opens again with the flute, then the tenor and each soloist in turn over an insistent drumbeat ground and some eery, sliding string effects. Towards the close, snarling brass, before the chorus takes up the gnomic adjuration, “Either seem to be as you are, or be as you seem to be”. The latent threat in the words and music is surely somewhat at odds with the intent of promoting international harmony and the whispered underlay to another solo vocal quartet in the concluding bars is distinctly more unsettling than reassuring but it is certainly arresting. Whether the synthesis between Islamic spirituality and Western classical genre is entirely convincing, I do not feel able to say, but it makes for an intriguing juxtapositional piece of programming and could attract those of a more adventurous disposition who appreciate new music of an exotic, cross-cultural but still traditionally tonal nature.

Ralph Moore

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