Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem – Insula Orchestra & Laurence Equilbey

This is a new performance of one of the most emblematic music works ever created – composed in Mozart’s final year and unfinished, the work is still today shrouded in mystery. It is the debut recording of Insula Orchestra, a new formation (on period instruments) co-founded in 2012 by Laurence Equilbey. Along with an impressive range of soloists and Accentus, one of the leading European choirs, also founded by Laurence Equilbey 20 years ago, they offer an intense and stylish interpretation of Mozart’s Requiem, recorded in the Chapelle Royale of Château de Versailles.

Laurence Equilbey, the conductor and music director of Insula orchestra and Accentus, is today highly regarded for her artistic rigour and open-minded approach. With Accentus, Laurence Equilbey continues to explore the large repertory of vocal music and to support contemporary creation. Their numerous recordings on Naive have received widespread critical acclaim. She is also artistic and pedagogical director of the training department for young singers at the CRR in Paris.

In 2012, with the support of the Conseil Général des Hauts-de-Seine, she founded Insula orchestra, a period-instrument group dedicated to the Classical and pre-Romantic repertoire. The 2014/15 season will see the orchestra’s first concert outside France, at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, and the release of its first disc, the present recording of the Mozart Requiem.

Reviews

BBC Music Magazine Christmas 2014

“Balance generally…is superbly managed by the experienced conductor, Laurence Equilbey…Her soloists, too, match well as a quartet…for all Equilbey’s avoidance of theatricality it’s the sense of detail, care and attention she imparts as well as fluency that makes her interpretation memorable. – 5 out of 5 stars

Choir & Organ January/February 2015 “It’s rare to hear a Requiem so bracingly and affirmatively sung.

International Record Review January 2015 “a very fine and very satisfying performance indeed.

The Observer 28th September 2014

“There is a superb high-level quartet of soloists, with Werner Güra’s ringing tenor prominent and Sandrine Piau’s plainsong icy sharp. The wiry Insula Orchestra is softened by basset horns and bassoons, while the Accentus choir has a light European texture, robust where needed, but in the female voices of Voca me cum benedictis echoing ethereally into eternity. – 4 out of 5 stars

Early Music Today March/May 2015

“Equilbey’s tempi have an un-indulgent discipline that maintains the velocity of the faster movements to exciting effect. The chamber choir Accentus should be better known outside of France: their sound is vibrant and fresh. The recording’s team of soloists is very well balanced, underpinned ably by Christopher Purves’ velvety bass-baritone.