"To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser." - Robertson Davies

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BBC - Radio 3 - The Choir - Mozart's Requiem - the different versions

"Mozart died leaving his Requiem unfinished but many musicians have tried their hand at completing it.

Aled Jones samples some of the many different attempts made over the last 200 years and talks to Philip Wilby about his involvement with the newest version, which combines historical reconstruction with contemporary music."

"He kept getting things wrong" - Maunder on Sussmayer. Tsk, so mean.


Aled Jones on Lacrimosa: Is your version better?
Maunder: Oh, it's not for me to say.

Maunder (I think): The Agnus Dei is very strange... Every now and then in the Agnus Dei there seem to be some strange mistakes, where Sussmayer has done something wrong. So obviously wrong you wonder how he could possibly have done it... This suggests, but I don't think proves conclusively, that Sussmayer was working from a Mozart sketch for this movement.

Wilby (I think): There's a distinction between the performers and the musicologists. We're musicologists, we're very interested in getting the endings right. The musicologists... get the detail right, but perhaps not the structure.


The transcription's probably a bit off, since the damn BBC radio player only lets me play, pause, fast forward by 5 minutes and fast forward by 15 minutes. !@#$

"Why can I only fast forward in 5 or 15 minute chunks when listening to music shows?

Unfortunately our rights agreements with the record companies mean that we cannot break music programmes up into smaller chunks, or offer a rewind facility. "