(14/07/2014) Famously unfinished at his death, Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor was completed the following year by the composer's student Franz Xaver S ssmayr, prompting over 200 years of debate as to what Mozart really intended the finished piece to sound like. A brand new interpretation of the piece has recently been recorded using Neumann digital microphones, prompting universal praise.
Performed by baroque ensemble The Dunedin Consort under the direction of conductor John Butt, the recording was made in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Kirk and issued on Scottish independent label Linn Records.
In many ways it was a way of rehabilitating S ssmayr, says Phillip Hobbs, chief producer at Linn Records. Ever since Requiem was completed, there has been a huge amount of discussion about whether he did a good job of it and so people have been coming up with new ways of finishing it.
What John has done is to look at what S ssmayr actually did, the context in which he did it and, in a way, dressed it in new clothes. We think the performance we recorded is very close to the first performance of the completed piece and, ultimately, much closer to what Mozart did.
Linn Records prides itself on the fidelity of its recordings, recording everything at 192kHz, which is one of the reasons why Neumann microphones are an essential part of Phillip's recording armoury. After over 15 years of using M 150s and TLM 50s as his main mics, this project saw a pair of K 133Ds and a pair of D-01s take pride of place.
copyrighted by liveProduction.tv I tried the K 133Ds about 18 months ago and was astonished by the reach, clarity and sheer lack of noise, he says. They are perfect for a building like Greyfriars Kirk, where the reverb tail is about six seconds. Their lack of noise means you can hear precisely when the sound stops and then hear right to the far end of the reverb tail.
Ive also found that the reach and detail of the K 133D is such that you need fewer spot mics. This means you're not fighting the inherent noise' of the space to the same degree and you use less tracks for the recording, he continues. You are very aware that you have to get them in the right place, but thats a very good discipline. Using the K 133Ds has effectively forced me to come back to a slightly more purist approach, which I think is very much for the better.
While the K 133Ds took care of the orchestral sound, the D-01s came into their own for vocalists Joanne Lunn, Rowan Hellier, Thomas Hobbs and Matthew Brook.
John handles the chorus in a very particular way. He has the soloist and the three other singers forming a sort of block around them. This means you hear the core of the one singer and the sound gets bigger around them, ensuring theres always personality in the chorus, rather than the usual sort of generic, amorphous chorus sound, says Phillip. Its difficult from a balance point of view, because you end up being closer to things than you would naturally, but the result is much more animation, emotion and detail.
The success of Philip and John's use of the Neumann microphones has been proved by the recording being universally praised in reviews, being Gramophone magazine's Recording of the Month for May and in the official classical Top 40 chart for 10 weeks. The record has also received an impressive 95% for sound quality in Hi-Fi News and Record Review.
The whole project has been fascinating. As well as the re-imagining of the S ssmayr work, we also recorded the first two parts of Requiem a second time, in the style that we believe they were very first performed, at Mozart's funeral, says Phillip.
You can either kill the creative element because everybody is so worried about getting Requiem exactly right, or you can interpret it by saying This is what we think he meant,' taking the work forward and producing a performance as it was, hopefully, supposed to be. I think thats what weve achieved and people have been very excited by it, which speaks for itself.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
(14/07/2014) Famously unfinished at his death, Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor was completed the following year by the composer's student Franz Xaver S ssmayr, prompting over 200 years of debate as to what Mozart really intended the finished piece to sound like. A brand new interpretation of the piece has recently been recorded using Neumann digital microphones, prompting universal praise.
