The haunting beauty of Mozart's
Requiem and the tragic circumstances surrounding its composition have made it a favorite among performers and listeners alike.
Few musical works carry as much mystery, drama, and historical intrigue as Mozart's Requiem — and few books bring that story to life as vividly as Opus Ultimum by Daniel N. Leeson. Written in the style of an extended program note rather than a dry academic treatise, this book is designed to be read and enjoyed, not just studied. There are no footnotes, no bibliographies, no Köchel numbers — just a richly detailed narrative that carries the reader through one of classical music's greatest unsolved puzzles.
At the heart of the story is a deceptively simple question: what exactly did Mozart leave behind when he died in December 1791, and how did an unfinished, largely unperformable manuscript become one of humanity's most treasured compositions? Leeson answers that question with precision and clarity, explaining the three distinct dimensions of the Requiem's incompleteness — from the eight architecturally complete but orchestrally unfinished sections, to the haunting eight-measure fragment of the Lacrimosa, to the liturgical gaps that required entirely new music to be created from scratch.
The cast of characters is as fascinating as the music itself. Constanze Mozart, the composer's widow, emerges as a morally complicated figure whose quick thinking after her husband's death almost certainly saved the Requiem from oblivion — yet whose repeated dishonesty about the work's true authorship cast a shadow over its history for decades. Franz Xaver Süssmayr, the young composer who ultimately completed the work, is examined with fairness and nuance, neither dismissed as a minor talent nor elevated beyond what the evidence supports. And Count Wallsegg, the secretive aristocrat who commissioned the Requiem as a memorial to his late wife — intending to pass it off as his own composition — adds a layer of scandal that reads almost like fiction.
Leeson also covers the manuscript's physical journey: how it was split apart, nearly lost, and eventually reassembled in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. He traces the long line of scholars and composers who have attempted their own completions of the work, from Joseph Eybler in the 1790s to Robert Levin of Harvard in modern times, and discusses the significance of the "Amen" fugue sketch discovered in Berlin in the 1960s.
Two period fiction stories — one from before the American Civil War and one from 1850 — bookend the narrative, illustrating how powerfully the romance of Mozart's final days captured the public imagination for generations.
For anyone who loves the Requiem and wants to understand the extraordinary story behind it, this book is an ideal companion.
The haunting beauty of Mozart's Requiem and the tragic circumstances surrounding its composition have made it a favorite among performers and listeners alike. But how much of it is actually Mozart's - and how do we know? Who wrote the missing pieces? What role did his wife, Constanze, play - and what about the man who secretly commissioned the work? Who tricked whom, and who had the last laugh in this grim tale? The author, an internationally recognized expert on Mozart, traces the complex web of events and intrigue that produced the Requiem and miraculously preserved it for posterity. Here is an accurate, precise, complete narrative of the dramatic story, minus the difficult terms and musicological obscurities; with a spoonful of sugar, the author introduces some of the technical problems, clues, and terminology used in reconstructing such histories.
