Essential Repertoire, Mozart's Requiem: Comparing the Completions

Mozart's Requiem is possibly one of the composer's greatest works, retaining its place as a staple of the choral repertoire to this day. However, due to the fact that Mozart did not live to complete the entirety of the Requiem, most of the performances we hear today feature music not wholly composed by Mozart.

The Requiem was anonymously commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna. It is possible that Walsegg intended to claim the Requiem was his own composition; he was an accomplished musician, and he is known to have done this with other works. However, because of the anonymity of the commission and Mozart's worsening health, it has been said that the composer was unnerved into thinking he had been cursed to write the Requiem for his own funeral, convinced he was about to die. Unfortunately, the composer did ultimately pass away on December 5, 1791, whilst in the midst of writing the Requiem.

After Mozart's death, his wife Constanze was desperate to receive the remainder of the commission fee and consequently had the work completed by another composer, feigning it as Mozart's own. This version, which is the version heard most often today, is by Franz Xaver Süßmayr. Süßmayr wrote the entire Requiem out in his own hand to achieve the appearance of the work being by one composer, namely Mozart. Previous examinations of the available sources have verified which parts of the Requiem Mozart composed himself, and what was added at a later date. In addition to the brand new completion by Howard Arman and the historical Süßmayr version, there are also completions by Robert D. Levin, Richard Maunder, Michael Ostrzyga, and more. Each completion offers a different perspective on Mozart and his last opus.

With the latest completion by Arman, Carus (with Dr. Ulrich Leisinger) have created a handy guide for comparing the different versions which you can find here. You can also find some of the key differences between the editions below.

Browse all available editions of Mozart's Requiem

Süßmayr Completion

After Mozart's death in December 1791, Constanze Mozart turned to his friends and pupils with the request to complete the fragment Mozart had written himself. After two unsuccessful attempts, the task fell to Mozart's pupil Franz Xaver Süßmayr, who completed the Requiem in the form we know today. He had at his disposal workshop material that is now lost, and perhaps also oral instructions from Mozart. This version is still the best-known today and is undoubtedly the closest to Mozart historically.

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Arman Completion

After two decades of intensive study of the work, Arman incorporated his findings into this completion with caution and respect for Mozart's great model. His approach proves to be particularly fruitful in that he orients himself - always aware of the limits of his own post-creative activity - to typical features of Mozart's genius as a composer: his technical perfection in composition, his search for new approaches to every situation and his concise treatment of the text with extremely rich harmonies.

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Ostrzyga Completion

Whilst Ostrzyga has based his own work on the historical completions by Süßmayr and Eybler, he has evaluated whether their compositional decisions could have conceivably met Mozart’s approval. Particularly important to him was the influence of Handel and Bach. In his completion, he has attempted to project how Handel’s and Bach’s music could have been reflected in the missing parts of Mozart’s Requiem.

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Levin Completion

Over the last decade, a number of musicians have attempted to cleanse the Requiem of the deficiencies introduced by Süßmayr. The completion published here takes into account the tendencies of the newer versions (such as revised instrumentation, or recomposition of some parts). At this, the character, texture, voice leading, continuity and structure of Mozart's music are observed.

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Maunder Completion

This edition of Mozart's final work starts afresh from Mozart's incomplete score, omitting the continuations and orchestrations by Joseph Eybler and Franz Xaver Süßmayr, who were engaged by Mozart's widow, Constanze, to complete the setting. The orchestration has been reworked throughout by Richard Maunder, and the Lacrymosa has been given a new continuation. Süssmayr's Sanctus and Benedictus movements have been included as an appendix.

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Listen to Howard Arman discuss his edition of the Requiem below.