Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS BIS-2091 (supplied by www.eclassical.com)

Masaaki Suzuki turns to Mozart and the unfinished Requiem. The principal question here is whose edition do you perform, and in this recording Süssmayr’s completion is used together with additions by Joseph Eybler with an added ‘Amen’ fugue (discovered in 1960) after the Lacrimosa. An alternatively scored Tuba mirum follows the second of two Vespers settings from 1779-80. This is a cleanly sung Requiem but somewhat polite and ordinary: a complete contrast with the earthy, more urgent Dunedin Consort/Linn, which sounds far more authentic to me [HFN Jul ’14]. This BIS production tends to favour choruses over the orchestra, although timpani are very prominent and the four soloists are widely spaced stage-front. The British soprano has more character than her colleagues. CB

Sound Quality: 70%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

This is the genuine article – a non-upsampled rendering at 96kHz which is more than sufficient to capture the massed vocals and accompanying orchestra [‘Dies Irae’ on Graph, above]. The music remains a matter of taste. PM