Admired for his fusion of German and Italianate musical elements, Johann Simon Mayr is increasingly recognised as one of the most intriguing and influential composers of his time. His Requiem in G minor is shrouded in compositional obscurity but it is clear that the published version is surpassed both in scale and instrumentation by the elaborate edition performed here, which has been assembled from the autograph manuscripts. Small sections were composed by Donizetti and then corrected by his teacher, Mayr. Church style and more Romanticised elements are finely balanced in this important example of Mayr’s compositional language.
Almost entirely bereft of serious engagement with the drama of Last Things, [the Requiem] reveals Mayr burbling away, as was often his wont, amiably and at length. A more irrepressibly cheerful set of Requiem movements you would be hard-pressed to find…what is genuinely cheering about the set is the affection that Frank Hauk and his mainly Bavarian forces clearly have…the performance has style and panace, and the recording is first-rate.
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