Raphaël Pichon’s Prom with his choir and period ensemble Pygmalion gave us an idiosyncratic version of Mozart’s Requiem that interleaved the movements of Franz Xaver Süssmayr’s familiar completion with shorter vocal and choral meditations on mortality from throughout Mozart’s life and career. Pichon, struck by thematic similarities between Mozart’s earliest motets and his final, unfinished masterpiece, calls his adaptation “a biographical journey of memories,” and his interpolations present us with pieces that are rarely heard, alongside familiar music in curiously unfamiliar guises.
So Mozart’s Meistermusik, an earlier choral version of the Masonic Funeral Music, now precedes the Requiem’s Introit, and the motet Quis Te Comprehendat, an anonymous arrangement of the adagio from the Gran Partita, is placed between Offertorium and Hostias. An aria from the relatively obscure Thamos, König in Ägypten (a play with incidental music) becomes a hellfire sermon prefacing the Dies irae, while the Agnus Dei is bracketed with the hymn O Gottes Lamm, which has something of the sublimity of Die Zauberflöte.
Pichon framed the evening with a plainchant In Paradisum, hauntingly sung, in his Proms debut, by Malakai Bayoh as a solo at the start, then with Pygmalion’s sopranos, in canon, as the whole sequence fades to its close. In between, high drama alternated with sombre reflection. Pichon’s ferocious way with the Dies irae ushered in a real maelstrom, and there was genuine fear in the Tuba Mirum where many interpreters relax the tension. Quis Te Comprehendat, in contrast, seemed to gaze quietly beyond time into eternity.
Playing and choral singing had terrific immediacy – Pygmalion are an outstanding ensemble – and the solo quartet in the Requiem were comparably fine. Sandrine Piau replaced the indisposed Erin Morley, her silvery soprano beautifully contrasted with Beth Taylor’s wonderfully rich mezzo. Laurence Kilsby was the ultra refined tenor, Alex Rosen the hieratic, implacable sounding bass. Bayoh also gave us one of the vocal exercises that Mozart wrote in 1782 for his wife Constanze, music that eventually found its way into the C Minor Mass. Pichon’s interventionist way with the Requiem might not be to all tastes, but it was a fascinating and moving experience nevertheless.
Available on BBC Sounds until 9 October. The Proms continue until 9 September.
