# What's the Best Completion of the Requiem and Why?



## Wolfgangus the Great (Jan 4, 2022)

My opinion is this;

Sussmayr's additions to all the movements up to Confutatis are fine. Lacrimosa is where everything completely falls apart. Sussmayr's additions to Hostias and Domine Jesu are fine though.

Sussmayr's new movements, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Benedictus are atrocious. Even when ignoring the voice leading errors, these movements feel contrived, amateurish, and borderline offensive.

The Agnus Dei has material copied from Mozart's earlier sacred music. 




The Agnus Dei is very static. First, he copies Mozart, he has absolutely no idea where he wants to go. He repeats the material in a major key, then he repeats it AGAIN in the minor key. It's boring and awkward.

I have strong suspicion that there is material in the Benedictus and the Ossana Fugue that's by Mozart. I've listened to Sussmayr's music and I concluded that Sussmayr is way too mediocre to have come up with the Benedictus. Especially since Sussmayr used material from Mozart to write Agnus Dei, it's plausible that he did so for the other movements.

The Sanctus is also very tacky. It has the most basic unrefined ideas. Levin's completion pretty fixes most of problems.

The Benedictus is the only one I can stand.

I have listened to Panczel Tamas' and Levin's. Tamas' completion of the Lacrimosa actually had me in tears. It makes you wonder what Mozart would've done. Levin's is probably the most well rounded of all, but since his Lacrimosa is based on Sussmayr's, it's not perfect.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Wolfgangus the Great said:


> My opinion is this;
> 
> Sussmayr's additions to all the movements up to Confutatis are fine. Lacrimosa is where everything completely falls apart. Sussmayr's additions to Hostias and Domine Jesu are fine though.
> 
> Sussmayr's new movements, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Benedictus are atrocious. Even when ignoring the voice leading errors, these movements feel contrived, amateurish, and borderline offensive.


I somewhat disagree with your overall assessment of the Sanctus, Agnus Dei _and the Benedictus especially_, though in other respects I agree. In the liner notes to the Harnoncourt performance (who lightly revises Sussmayr) he makes the point that Mozart typically started with the bass and choral parts, then filled out from there.

"Anyone keen to see where in Süßmayr's additions traces of Mozart might be found would do best to start with the bass and choral parts, which Mozart used as his starting-point for the compositional structure, and which are clearly laid out in every piano score. The strongest argument in Mozart's favor here is the use of motifs from earlier parts in order to forge stronger inner unity-a technique Süßmayr himself had not mastered, as is clear from his surviving compositions. Scholars who set about analyzing the work established early on that the beginning of the Angus Dei in the choral bass quite audibly quotes the work's main theme from the Introitus. The coral soprano from the opening of the Sanctus is nothing but a major variant of the Dies Irae in augmented form, while the theme of the Osanna fugue is a variant of the closing fugue of the Offertorium, "Quam olim Abrahae". The opening of the Benedictus has been identified as a theme that Mozart had jotted down in the exercise book of his pupil Barbara Ployer. etc..."

"The results of the compositional activity turn out ot be a peculiar mixture of surprisingly good ideas and the inadequate execution thereof, not to mention possible half-understood or misunderstood references meant to help the listener find his way around."

Which is essentially what you've written.

All that said, I would have to say that the Dutron completion, conducted by Jacobs is possibly my favorite.

The only problem I have with it, and it's a problem I have with nearly all the reconstructions, is that Dutron just can't resist making a complete hash of the Benedictus. There is _not a single reconstruction_ of the Benedictus that is better than Süßmayr's, and that tells me that for all the worry over Süßmayr's mediocrity, he apparently remains a far greater composer than any of the scholars trying to better him. In my completely unsubstantiated opinion, the Benedictus reflects Mozart's verbal instructions (or lost sketches) more so than any of Sussmayr's other additions. Given that the theme is based on an exercise, it's possible that the Benedictus represents an exercise begun under Mozart's guidance _before_ the Requiem. The Benedictus, for all its flaws of execution, is profoundly beautiful and far beyond anything Sussmayr was capable of before or afterward. Repairing its deficiencies requires a light touch and a commanding familiarity with Mozart's musical language-and the latter is where Mozart scholars all seem to stumble.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I always had a suspicion about Sussmayr's claim that he composed the Sanctus Benedictus and Agnus Dei all by himself. He may have had some instruction and may have been working from some sketches he found in the pile of papers Constanze passed over to him after Eybler gave up on the task - we will never know. That he composed those three movements purely from his own inventive powers defies belief. He was a student - not even an accomplished composer. The Sanctus however - is not good. But I agree the Benedictus has moments of beauty that would be beyond far better composers than Sussmayr.
I have heard Hogwood's version - didnt like it that much. Im not really familiar with any other reconstructions but will have a listen to some that are cited in this thread. I like the Gardiner recording on Phillips - there is a spectacular Bernstein youtube recording of it - best big band dies irae I have ever heard on that recording.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Hogwood's recording = Richard Maunder's edition. Cuts Sanctus+Benedictus, adds an Amen fuge to the Lacrimosa, revises instrumentation. It's the only version really different from Süssmayr I have. (I think Beyer makes only small emendations in Süssmayr?). But I would have to relisten to say anything about it, it's been too long. 
(I usually only listen until Lacrimosa anyway, if that long...)


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Kreisler jr said:


> Hogwood's recording = Richard Maunder's edition. Cuts Sanctus+Benedictus, adds an Amen fuge to the Lacrimosa, revises instrumentation. It's the only version really different from Süssmayr I have. (I think Beyer makes only small emendations in Süssmayr?). But I would have to relisten to say anything about it, it's been too long.
> (*I usually only listen until Lacrimosa anyway,* if that long...)


I think a lot of people do that - it kind of starts to fall apart a bit from the sanctus onwards


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I think the inclusion of the Amen, which builds on the vertical inversion of the 'D-C#-D-E-F' of the Introitus, Dies irae, Recordare (horizontally inverted/modified), Domine jesu (horizontally inverted/modified), Lacrimosa, is vital to the overall "narrative" of the work. "As Levin points out in the foreword to his completion of the Requiem, the addition of the Amen Fugue at the end of the sequence results in an overall design that ends each large section with a fugue."


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

vtpoet said:


> I somewhat disagree with your overall assessment of the Sanctus, Agnus Dei _and the Benedictus especially_, though in other respects I agree. In the liner notes to the Harnoncourt performance (who lightly revises Sussmayr) he makes the point that Mozart typically started with the bass and choral parts, then filled out from there.
> 
> "Anyone keen to see where in Süßmayr's additions traces of Mozart might be found would do best to start with the bass and choral parts, which Mozart used as his starting-point for the compositional structure, and which are clearly laid out in every piano score. The strongest argument in Mozart's favor here is the use of motifs from earlier parts in order to forge stronger inner unity-a technique Süßmayr himself had not mastered, as is clear from his surviving compositions. Scholars who set about analyzing the work established early on that the beginning of the Angus Dei in the choral bass quite audibly quotes the work's main theme from the Introitus. The coral soprano from the opening of the Sanctus is nothing but a major variant of the Dies Irae in augmented form, while the theme of the Osanna fugue is a variant of the closing fugue of the Offertorium, "Quam olim Abrahae". The opening of the Benedictus has been identified as a theme that Mozart had jotted down in the exercise book of his pupil Barbara Ployer. etc..."
> 
> ...


I agree. We should remember that in all likelihood, the Requiem was completed at the urging of Mozart's widow Constanze only so that she could collect the badly-needed commission from the wealthy client for whom it was written. Sussmayr, who was working with Mozart, was obviously the one for the job, and he succeeded in producing a Requiem that was successfully performed and enabled Constanze to be paid. I don't see why this means we must listen to his, or anyone else's, completion.

This is a very different situation from that of Mahler's 10th symphony, for example, that the composer described as completed "in the sketch". Unfortunately, what is mostly incomplete there is the orchestration, something that Mahler did with supreme skill and imagination. However, even with modest attempts at orchestration, I find completed versions to be rather successful, unlike any completed version of the Mozart Requiem I have heard.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Another thing I've had in mind to discuss; I doubt if Mozart intended the Sanctus and Benedictus to be really that 'celebratory and happy'. Look at this (remarkable for sounding 'gloomy and dark' all the way):

*Requiem in C Minor, MH 155 (1771)*
Requiem 1st theme & "trumpet signal": [ 0:20 ]
Requiem 2nd theme: [ 3:20 ~ 3:45 ]
Dies irae theme: [ 6:26 ~ 2:38 ]
Requiem '3rd theme': [ 7:00 ~ 7:12 ]
Lacrimosa theme: [ 11:41 ~ 11:48 ]
Dies irae theme recapitulated (within 'Dies irae' movement): [ 12:12 ~ 12:24 ]
Requiem '3rd theme' recapitulated (within 'Dies irae' movement) +
chromatic fourth theme (climbing from D to G in bass): [ 12:40 ~ 12:50 ]
Amen & Requiem '3rd theme' elaborated (coda of 'Dies irae' movement): [ 12:52 ~ 13:40 ]
Quam olim abrahae fugue: [ 16:06 ~ 17:18 ]
Quam olim abrahae fugue recapitulated (with added figures in strings): [ 18:52 ~ 20:02 ] 
Hosanna theme (Lacrimosa theme transformed/recapitulated): [ 24:23 ~ 24:30 ]
Requiem '4th theme' & "trumpet signal": [ 26:48 ; 27:56 ]
chromatic fourth theme recapitulated (climbing from G to C in soprano): [ 28:40 ~ 28:50 ]
Cum sanctis tuis fugue: [ 29:17 ~ 31:16 ]
Requiem 2nd theme recapitulated: [ 31:22 ~ 31:50 ]
Requiem 1st theme recapitulated: [ 31:58 ~ 32:30 ]
Cum sanctis tuis fugue recapitulated: [ 32:38 ~ 34:30 ]

If Mozart embraced the "beneficial influence" in its fullest, would he have written his (Sanctus and Benedictus) like the Süssmayr completion?


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