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Mozart: Taryn Fiebig, soprano; Tobias Cole, countertenor; Andrew Goodwin, tenor; Hans-Georg Wimmer, baritone; Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir; Paul Dyer; Sydney City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney, 27.2.2009 (ZT)

Mozart: Symphony No.36 in C, Linz, K425 (1783)

Requiem Mass in D minor, K626 (1791)


On Friday evening the Sydney Recital Hall was filled to capacity for an all Mozart concert by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir. The recital constituted a ‘first’ from several perspectives: this was the first occasion on which the Orchestra and Choir have performed Mozart’s Requiem and the first of several repeat performances scheduled over the ensuing weeks. During this, the first concert for 2009 by the Orchestra, new concertmaster Rachel Beesley performed her duties for the first time.

Those with a penchant for Mozart’s Requiem will probably share a common preoccupation: just how much did Franz Süssmayr contribute to the unfinished work in the essential format in which we hear it today? The concert programme notes provide some detail on what Süssmayr is mooted to have contributed to the final work. While not Constanze’s first choice, or the only individual to have made additions, history designates him as the one who completed the work. We are fortunate to have access to a recently discovered and recorded, complete original Requiem from the pen of Süssmayr. Although competently crafted, this Requiem suggests that in style and musical structure the creative input by Süssmayr to the unfinished Mozart work was minimal. It is obvious that he had access to sketches of Mozart’s intentions which no longer exist.

This performance of the Mozart Requiem was of a high standard. The Choir of thirty voices, one third of whom were female, sang memorably. Although some interpreters employ boy’s voices in performances of this work, the Brandenburg Choir demonstrated the superiority of the adult voice in this context. All four soloists sang superbly and the synergy between orchestra, choir and soloists was impressive.

I am not keeping the best until last! The prelude to the performance of the Requiem comprised an incense bearer, two candle bearers and four male singers dressed in cassocks who sang plainchant. On completion of this presentation, the audience was subjected to a dimly lit venue while participants changed attire and rejoined the orchestra. The long, protracted pause in proceedings was palpable and uncomfortable. This was a modest exercise in histrionics, incongruous in a sophisticated musical environment.

The Linz Symphony was wisely programmed first because it is overshadowed by the grandeur and magnificence of the Requiem. Well played as it was, this performance is not the best I have heard. While unamplified performance, invariably synonymous with unadulterated and undistorted sound, is a bonus on these occasions, one still needs to be able to hear what is happening at positions well beyond the first few rows of the venue. Toward the back of the hall the continuo was totally inaudible. In compensation, the beautiful string bass lines were audible in minute detail.

All in all, this was an excellent and memorable concert.

Zane Turner


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