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Nicholas Kenyon recommends a recording of Mozart's Requiem for Building a Library on Radio 3.

Commissioned in strange circumstances, the Requiem has been argued over by musicians and scholars for the past couple of centuries; it has also inspired fiction, drama and opera. Left unfinished at Mozart's death, his widow Constanze desperately needed to get the Requiem finished to get it paid for. Two attempts to complete it were made in her lifetime and several more, since.

To arrive at his final choice, Nicholas Kenyon asks 'What is The Mozart Requiem?' It's a knotty question which takes some unpicking and has more than one answer.

Top recommendation:

Mozart: Requiem (Reconstruction of first performance) MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626; Misericordias Domini - Offertory, K222 Joanne Lunn (soprano), Rowan Hellier (alto), Thomas Hobbs (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass-baritone), Dunedin Consort, John Butt (conductor) LINN CKD449 (Hybrid SACD)

Other recordings:

Below is a shortlist of other recordings which Nicholas Kenyon also liked, although we can鈥檛 guarantee the availability of these discs.

MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626; Kyrie in D minor, K341 Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Willard White, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) PHILIPS 4201972 (CD)

MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626 Emma Kirkby, Carolyn Watkinson, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, David Thomas, Chorus and Orchestra of The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood (conductor) DECCA 4117122 (CD mid-price)

Mozart & Brahms: Requiem BRAHMS: Ein Deutsches Requiem Op. 45; Begrabnisgesang Op. 13 MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626; Masonic Funeral Music in C minor, K477 Lynne Dawson (soprano), Olaf Bar (baritone), Schutz Choir of London, Nancy Argenta (soprano), Catherine Robbin (contralto), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Alastair Miles (bass), London Classical Players, Roger Norrington (conductor) ERATO 9125662 (2CD budget)

MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626 Revised and completed by Robert D Levin, Karina Gauvin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, John Tessier, Nathan Berg, La Chapelle de Quebec, Les Violins du Roy, Bernard Labadie (conductor) DORIAN DOR90310 (MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K626 Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman (conductor) TELARC CD80410 (CD mid-price)

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