IDAGIO | Opus summum viri summi - Mozart: Requiem K. 626, Piano Version for four Hands by Carl Czerny 4260036258691

Featuring

Jürgen Appell
Kerstin Strassburg
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Recording & Production

This album is the world's first CD recording of the four-hand Mozart-Czerny Requiem in its pure form.

Interpretation

The Duo Straßburg/Appell selected a completion of the "Amen" fugue by New York musicologist and pianist Robert D. Levin, which they transcribed for piano four hands for this CD.

Composition History

This recording includes a completion of an "Amen" fugue that Mozart had added to the Lacrymosa movement of the Requiem, of which he had only written 14 bars.

Composer Biography

Carl Czerny, who arranged Mozart's Requiem for four hands, was a brilliant pianist, a pupil of Beethoven, and later the teacher of Liszt.

Album & Artwork

The title of this album, "Opus summum viri summi," meaning "the greatest work of the greatest master," was originally given by composer Johann Adam Hiller to his copy of Mozart's Requiem around 1800.

Composition History

Carl Czerny's four-hand transcription of Mozart's Requiem was commissioned by the Austrian theologian and musician Maximilian Stadler, to whom the arrangement is dedicated.

Performer Biography

Jürgen Appell, one of the pianists on this recording, previously toured extensively as part of Duo Lontano, performing in countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.