Kevin writes regarding the Mozart Requiem with Weil and the Tolzer Boys
Choir:

>Sorry to outright disagree (heck, I'm not either) but I found this
>recording to be screechy *and* lifeless.  I can't stand boy choir
>renditions of this kind of music to begin with, but upon repeated
>listening, this is one of the most phoned in performances I have heard
>in years.  As for the music, it's sublime, no matter who the heck really
>wrote it.

Now, just hold on to your whole notes for a moment.

Are you talking about the wonderfully penetrating yet aching downward leaps
of the violins as the chorus introduces the Requiem Aeternam?

Could it be the staccato sixteenth-note runs in the Kyrie fugue, executed
so perfectly by the choir that you can practically still hear air between
the notes? (Not to mention the hair-raising final run with those raised
pitches--again, no prisoners were taken as far as I could tell.)

What about the excitement generated in the Dies Irae by the fabulous
first and second violins? You couldn't hear the incredibly clear rhythmic
articulation? And the exciting crescendi on the words "Quantus" and
"Quando" in the chorus--Wow!

Did you not like the increased dimensional clarity in the Rex Tremendae,
lent by the boy voices?

The especially tender pleading of the string interludes of the Recordare?

The percussive violence of the strings in the Confutatis was lifeless? The
naivete of the children's voices, "praying on bended knee" didn't move you?

The Beethoven-like gravity of the Lacrimosa?

Well, that's half the piece only, but I think you get my point.  And
I can't think of a section where choral intonation flagged or where
consonances weren't aligned.  Overall shaping was dramatic and purposeful.
And the orchestra's overall execution was/is a marvel--such energetic
rhythms and lyrical pathos.  One doesn't get such enthusiasm and
response from an orchestra over the phone.  Perhaps....perhaps the solo
contributions were a little bit dull, but clear and gratifying for the most
part.  (Except for a curiously tentative beginning to the Tuba Mirum--the
Bass and Trombone sounded very Barnum and Bailey to me, and then came the
tenor entrance on the words, "Death and Nature will recoil." I recoiled at
least.)

Can you re-listen to some of these sections and tell me what you didn't
like about them in detail? And don't be afraid to get technical, as I'm
a musician too.

John Smyth
Sacramento, Ca
http://facelink.com/J66560