Mozart's Requiem has always been shrouded in controversy and mystery. Mozart died before completing the work and scholars have been disagreeing about which is the most authentic version ever since.
In this video interview recorded at London's Foundling Museum, BBC Music Magazine's editor Oliver Condy meets John Butt, who has recently recorded the piece with the Dunedin Consort. They discuss the work's history and Butt's decision to record a new edition of the completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, the first of many composers who have taken on the challenge of finishing the piece.
Butt explains his desire to encourage audiences to view Süssmayr's version in a new light. For this disc, the Dunedin Consort has recorded the work as it might have been heard at its first performance at a benefit concert in January 1793, with smaller forces than later became the norm.
Read a review of John Butt's recording of Mozart's Requiem in the May issue of BBC Music Magazine.