Antonín Rejcha: Requiem

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Rejcha’s Missa pro defunctis (Requiem) was composed during his stay in Vienna between 1802–1808. It was thought lost for many years. It was not until almost 150 years later that several studies gradually brought some clarity into the history of this composition. Considerable merit in rediscovering and acknowledging Rejcha belongs to Czech musicologists Jiří Vysloužil and Olga Šotolová. Rejcha’s Missa pro defunctis is frequently referred to as a link between Mozart’s Requiem and Berlioz’s Messa da Requiem, the latter being composed for a concert hall and thus free from any liturgical purpose, especially in the choral and orchestral parts betraying Rejcha’s influence. In his operas, Rejcha was accused of the lack of dramatic sense, yet in this composition it is manifested by a number of unconventional features. In the orchestra, the strings carry the greatest weight; the wind instruments counterbalance their sound and produce tonal effects in expressive moments; they are also entrusted with smaller solos or duplicated with vocal parts. Stanislav Ondráček’s reconstruction of Rejcha’s Requiem was performed on 12 February 1986, most likely as the world premiere. A new edition of Rejcha’s Requiem based on his autograph and other sources, with the missing bars reconstructed from the surviving performing parts and including the recently discovered part Cum sanctis, was prepared by Amy Goodman Weller (Middleton: A-R Editions, 2008). This edition has also served as the basis of a new production and the present recording.