Presto Recording of the Week
4th October 2024

Chadi Lazreq (treble), Ying Fang (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Alex Rosen (bass)

Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon

The French conductor and his dynamic ensemble shed new light on the score (given here in Süssmayr's familiar completion) by weaving in material from Mozart's youth which foreshadows ideas later developed in the Mass - including an early Miserere and music from Thamos, König in Ägypten.

The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart’s Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Raphaël Pichon’s interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving.

"As on the Presto Award-winning Libertà! back in 2019, Pichon presents compelling evidence that the seeds of Mozart’s mature masterpieces were sown in the composer’s extreme youth, and the results are truly ear-opening...When the Mass proper gets underway, Pichon seems at pains to remind us of Mozart’s indebtedness to the Baroque tradition. Perhaps his swift tempi in the quartet movements won’t be to everyone’s taste, but certainly they convey a keen sense of the dying composer’s race against time." - Presto Music, 4th October 2024