I have run across with this video clip of Mozart's Requiem in Youtube. Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Karl Bohm. Recorded in 1979. I have got a CD of this requiem with the same orchestra and conductor recorded in 1971. I don't remember when I got it. Maybe around 1980. Bohm was a famous conductor those days. He conducted with least action. Profound and solid sound still he draws from the orchestra.
It is often believed that Mozart has composed this requiem in the weakened condition in his last year of life. An excellent music researcher, Christoph Wolff, says in his work titled "Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788 - 1791" that Mozart has reached a new viewpoint for new style as Mozart's wife depicted, that is, the solemn pathos style. After passing of Emperor Joseph II, who had not been motivated for religious music at the Imperial Chapel, under the era of next Leopold II, Mozart was willing to take the position of music chief at St. Stefan Cathedral. Mozart was at the gateway to the success of new genre. Fortune has forced him to leave this requiem and even 140 fragments unfinished.
Thinking of this story, I could not help being overwhelmed with this music.
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