This timely issue of the Requiem does, I think, approximate more closely to what might have been heard at the work's first performance than any other I know of. It uses modest forces (strings 7.6.4.3.2, choir 11.9.8.7), with period instruments; the only respect in which it falls short is that the choir is mixed rather than all male. Peter Neumann directs what is a sincere, warm, deeply felt but not sentimentalized reading, a good deal less dramatic than most others in the catalogue. One could well say that his vision of the work unfolds clearly and without affectation. A particular virtue, for which the balance engineers deserve credit, is the clarity of the textures, with the sound of the period strings coming distinctly through the choir even in full voice—the excellent definition of the choral lines (the tenors and basses especially) certainly helps here.
The version used is more or less unadulterated Sussmayr, which I slightly regret; there are strong arguments for at least (and perhaps at most) a modest revision of some of his worst musical solecisms. There is a first-class solo team, with Diana Montague in fine voice, singing the soprano music movingly. Some may find the markedly English quality of Michael Chance's countertenor alien to this music, but he is an excellent ensemble man and the sharp clear line of his tone helps clarify the solo ensembles; good, unexceptional contributions from that pleasing tenor Christoph Pregardien and Franz-Josef Selig, a light and flexible bass.
This is by no means, you will have realized, the Requiem to end all Requiems. There will be others that present Mozart's last work more vigorously, more reflectively, or more colourfully, some of which you may feel is its due. But this middle-of-the-road version, lucid, efficient and certainly musical, and aptly supplemented by a touching account of the Ave verum corpus, has a good deal to commend it and is worth serious consideration for the period-instrument listener who finds Hogwood's Maunder text (L'Oiseau-Lyre) unsatisfactory and Gardiner's (Philips—my usual recommendation) a little self-consciously directed. There are more to come in these next months.'