In a marketplace well supplied with recordings of Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626, this one does indeed live up to its claim of standing out. It's one of just a few recordings done with a mixed choir of boys and men, and on top of that the soloists are drawn from the choir, lessening the contrast between them. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is a small group, here using period instruments. There certainly would have been performances of sacred music with these forces in the Vienna of Mozart's time, and ...
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In a marketplace well supplied with recordings of Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626, this one does indeed live up to its claim of standing out. It's one of just a few recordings done with a mixed choir of boys and men, and on top of that the soloists are drawn from the choir, lessening the contrast between them. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is a small group, here using period instruments. There certainly would have been performances of sacred music with these forces in the Vienna of Mozart's time, and annotator and conductor Edward Higginbottom notes that an account of the performance of the Requiem that was eventually arranged after Mozart's death refers to them only by their last names, something that would have been unusual applied to female soloists. The arguments in favor of this mode of performance are by no means definitive. Hearing the soprano and alto solos sung by boys of average accomplishments is unexpected to say the least, and the singer Mozart most likely had in mind, here...
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