Mozart: Requiem review – superb soloists in a resonant acoustic

Hard on the heels of John Butt’s prize-winning Mozart Requiem comes a very different approach to the work, conducted by Laurence Equilbey and recorded in a resonant acoustic – the Royal Chapel, Versailles – that is also tellingly precise in its detail. You have to search quite hard to find that this is Süssmayr’s famous completion of the Requiem, closely in touch with the composer’s legacy, in a church-based sound world. There is a superb high-level quartet of soloists, with Werner Güra’s ringing tenor prominent and Sandrine Piau’s plainsong icy sharp. The wiry Insula Orchestra is softened by basset horns and bassoons, while the Accentus choir has a light European texture, robust where needed, but in the female voices of Voca me cum benedictis echoing ethereally into eternity.