These days it's rare for a conductor's name to become closely linked with any particular orchestra. But if you were to ask a classical music lover to free-associate, "
Neville Marriner" would almost certainly be met with "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields" -- the orchestra that Marriner founded in 1959. Actually, a few folks might answer "Mozart," as Marriner has recorded so much of that composer's music and conducted the soundtrack to Milos Forman's Oscar-winning film
Amadeus. On this disc, the English conductor leads his crackerjack Academy in a powerful performance of Mozart's
Requiem. The composer wrote this work on his deathbed -- as portrayed so dramatically in Forman's film -- and left it unfinished when he died at the age of 35. Using the standard version completed by Mozart's student Süssmayr, and featuring a quartet of fresh-voiced vocal soloists, Marriner's interpretation has a nobility and pathos that touches the soul.
