Soprano: Bozena Harasimowicz-Haas
Mezzo-Soprano: Katarzyna Suska
Tenor: Ole Hedegaard
Bass-Baritone: Ole Støvring Larsen

Choir: Chorus Soranu
Orchestra: Torunska Orkiestra Kameralna
Conductor: Knud Vad

Date: June 1999
Venue: Sorø Klosterkirke, Sorø, Denmark

Label: Classico
Cat No.: CLASSCD 288
Released: 2000

Knud Vad has valiantly proposed an alternative performing version of the Mozart Requiem. Vad took Süssmayr as a starting point and worked with modern Mozart scholarship to come up with the text for the present recording, concentrating particularly on the Sanctus/Benedictus/Hosanna.

Vad’s version will not change your life, but it would have been fairer to give it a better chance than this. The chorus is recessed and lacks power throughout (the Rex tremendae is but one casualty). There is some scrappy orchestral playing, and the timpani are muffled where they should be precisely defined. The soloists make up a well-balanced quartet when singing together and are collectively by far the best single element, although in Tuba mirum the tenor’s entry lets down the bass soloist’s good work.

The soprano, Bozena Harasimowicz-Haas, is the star. Her voice is supple and well focussed. It is fitting that she is allowed to shine by herself in the Laudate Dominum. It was an unfortunate choice to end the disc with a choral piece, the Ave Verum Corpus in a stodgily recorded, dull performance.

Colin Clarke

Knud Vad (2000) followed Süssmayr’s completion until the “Sanctus” and “Benedictus”, inserting 4 bars in piano for the “Sanctus”, composing a double fugue for the Osanna with Süssmayr’s theme, adding more modulations to the “Benedictus” and composing a transition back to D major.