Mozart's "Requiem"

"Amadeus" soundtrack is excellent. The best one for me is the score
at the END of the movie when credits are shown, at least for me. I
don't know the name of this score... but it is BEAUTIFUL! OSIT.

Also, there a CD or maybe it is available for download (free?):
"Mozart: Requiem in d minor dv 626" but I don't know the name
of the Orchestra that performed this.

Cheers!
 
There has always been a mystique about this piece, which perhaps adds to its popularity.

From ickypedia:

The eccentric count Franz von Walsegg commissioned the Requiem from Mozart anonymously though intermediaries acting on his behalf. The count, an amateur chamber musician who routinely commissioned works by composers and passed them off as his own, wanted a Requiem mass he could claim he composed to memorialize the recent passing of his wife. Mozart received only half of the payment in advance, so upon his death his widow Constanze was keen to have the work completed secretly by someone else, submit it to the count as having been completed by Mozart and collect the final payment. Joseph von Eybler was one of the first composers to be asked to complete the score, and had worked on the movements from the Dies irae up until the Lacrimosa. In addition, a striking similarity between the openings of the Domine Jesu Christe movements in the requiems of the two composers suggests that Eybler at least looked at later sections. Following this work, he felt unable to complete the remainder, and gave the manuscript back to Constanze Mozart.

The task was then given to another composer, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who had already helped the ailing Mozart in writing the score, since in his final days the composer's limbs had become extremely swollen. Süssmayr borrowed some of Eybler's work in making his completion, and added his own orchestration to the movements from the Dies Irae onward (the Kyrie was orchestrated before either Süssmayr or Eybler began their work) , completed the Lacrimosa, and added several new movements which a Requiem would normally comprise: Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. He then added a final section, Lux aeterna by adapting the opening two movements which Mozart had written to the different words which finish the Requiem Mass, which according to both Süssmayr and Mozart's wife was done according to Mozart's directions. Whether or not that is true, some people consider it unlikely that Mozart would have repeated the opening two sections if he had survived to finish the work completely. However, the fact that the work ends with a recapitulation of the first movement creates a work which, overall, displays characteristics of sonata form, which may help to authenticate the idea for the repetition of the first movement as the final movement. As has often been stated, Mozart was not the only composer to do this, and many requiems written before his repeat the first movement as the last. (In regular Masses a similar practice existed where the last movement, the Agnus Dei, was indicated only by the words "ut Kyrie", "as the Kyrie".)

Other composers may have helped Süssmayr. The elder composer Maximilian Stadler is suspected of having completed the orchestration of the Domine Jesu for Süssmayr. The Agnus Dei is suspected by some scholars[citation needed] to have been based on instruction or sketches from Mozart because of its similarity to a section from the Gloria of a previous Mass (K.220) by Mozart, as was first pointed out by Richard Maunder. Many of the arguments dealing with this matter, though, center on the perception that if part of the work is high quality, it must have been written by Mozart (or from sketches), and if part of the work contains errors and faults, it must have been all Süssmayr's doing. A frequent meta-debate is whether or not this is a fair way to judge the authorship of the parts of the work.

Another controversy is the suggestion that Mozart left explicit instructions for the completion of the Requiem on "little scraps of paper." It is commonly believed this claim was made by Constanza Mozart after it was public knowledge that the Requiem was actually completed by Süssmayr as a way to increase the impression of authenticity.

The completed score, initially by Mozart but largely finished by Süssmayr, was then dispatched to Count Walsegg complete with a counterfeited signature of Mozart and dated 1792. The various complete and incomplete manuscripts eventually turned up in the 19th century, but many of the figures involved did not leave unambiguous statements on record as to how they were involved in the affair. Despite the controversy over how much of the music is actually Mozart's, the commonly performed Süssmayr version has become widely accepted by the public. This acceptance is quite strong, even when alternate completions provide logical and compelling solutions for the work.
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The legend is that Mozart received the anonymous request, and felt that it was an emissary of death, and he was writing his own requiem. Some feel that Salieri had him poisoned, and commissioned the work, but there is rather a lack of evidence for all this.

Several versions exist, but the Sussmayr is the most frequently performed. I've played the piece about 15 or so times in the last 5 years (including a week ago), and only played the new version by Levin twice. I personally prefer the Sussmayr, but what do I know? Levin has valid points to his arguement, but I think the drama inherent in the music is more constant in the original version.

Recordings:
I'm a big fan of any choral works conducted by Gardiner (check out his Brahms' German Requiem...ooooh). Karajan and Muti both did great recordings with Berlin, and the Bernstein is good as well. There are quite a few good recordings out there, and most of the big name conductors and orchestras have recorded it at some point. Probably can't go wrong with most of them.

The university I work at has a connection with two music services, Naxos Music Library, and Classical Music Library, that you can listen to a multitude of recordings for free. I'm not sure what's out there apart from those.
 
Re: Mozart's \

And more about it:

It is Constanze's efforts that created the flurry of half-truths and myths almost instantly after Mozart's death. She contributed to numerous rumors of Mozart’s murder by the Italian composer Antonio Salieri. In 1791, Mozart received a mysterious commission by a stranger to compose a Requiem. Supposedly, the patron of this commission was Franz von Walsegg, who wanted to compose the Requiem in memory of his late wife. Although Mozart accepted the commission, he began to work on an opera, La clemenza di Tito, in Prague. Suddenly, Mozart became extremely ill in Prague and needed medical attention upon his return to Vienna. As soon as Mozart came back to Vienna, he began working on the Requiem. However, he felt extremely depressed, and started to speak of death. According to Constanze, Mozart even declared that he was composing the Requiem for himself, and that he had been poisoned. His symptoms worsened, and he began to complain about the painful swelling of his body and high fever. Nevertheless, Mozart continued his work on the Requiem, and even on the last day of his life, he was explaining to his assistant how he intended to finish the Requiem. Source materials written soon after Mozart’s death contain serious discrepancies which leave a level of subjectivity when assembling the "facts" about Mozart’s composition of the Requiem. For example, at least three of the conflicting sources, both dated within two decades following Mozart’s death, cite Constanze Mozart (Mozart’s wife) as their primary source of interview information. In 1798, Friedrich Rochlitz, the German biographical author and amateur composer, published a set of Mozart anecdotes which he claimed to have collected during his meeting with Constanze in 1796.[3] The Rochlitz publication makes the following statements:

* Mozart was unaware of his commissioner’s identity at the time he accepted the project.
* He was not bound to any date of completion of the work
* He stated that it would take him around four weeks to complete.
* He requested, and received, 100 ducats at the time of the first commissioning message.
* He began the project immediately after receiving the commission.
* His health was poor from the outset; he fainted multiple times while working
* He took a break from writing the work to visit the Prater with his wife.
* He shared with his wife that for certain he was writing this piece for his own funeral.
* He spoke of "very strange thoughts" regarding the unpredicted appearance and commission of this unknown man.
* He noted that the departure of Leopold to Prague for the coronation was approaching.

The most highly disputed of these claims is the last one, the chronology of this setting. According to Rochlitz, the messenger arrives quite some time before the departure of Leopold for the coronation, yet we have record of his departure occurring in mid-July 1791. However, Constanze was in Baden during all of June to mid-July, she would not have been present for the commission or the drive they were said to have taken together.[3] Furthermore, The Magic Flute (except for the Overture and March of the Priests) was completed by mid-July. La clemenza di Tito was commissioned by mid-July.[3] There was no time for Mozart to work on the Requiem on the large scale indicated by the Rochlitz publication in the time frame provided.

Also in 1798, Constanze is noted to have given another interview to Franz Xaver Niemetschek[4], another biographer looking to publish a compendium of Mozart's life. He published his biography in 1808, containing the following claims about Mozart’s receipt of the Requiem commission:

* Mozart received the commission very shortly before the Coronation of Emperor Leopold II, and before he received the commission to go to Prague.
* He did not accept the messenger’s request immediately; he wrote the commissioner and agreed to the project stating his fee, but urging that he could not predict the time required to complete the work.
* The same messenger appeared later, paying Mozart the sum requested plus a note promising a bonus at the work’s completion.
* He started composing the work upon his return from Prague.
* He fell ill while writing the work
* He told Constanze "I am only too conscious," he continued, "my end will not be long in coming: for sure, someone has poisoned me! I cannot rid my mind of this thought."
* Constanze thought that the Requiem was overstraining him; she called the doctor and took away the score.
* On the day of his death he had the score brought to his bed.
* The messenger took the unfinished Requiem soon after Mozart’s death.
* Constanze never learned the commissioner’s name.

Sad, what happened to this genius when worked under pressure (illness and death), it seems he wrote Requiem like his own "Missa pro defunctis" (Mass for the deceased) like he knew he will not be able to finalize it.
 
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