The mysterious circumstances of the Requiem's commission, and the fact that it was left incomplete by a dying Mozart, have ensured a continuing fascination with his last composition.
"The Requiem, like the great C minor Mass, remained a torso, but in a quite different sense," writes Einstein. "In the Mass we have the whole Kyrie, the whole Gloria, the whole Sanctus and Benedictus, and all of these movements in a version that is authentic down to the smallest detail. In the Requiem small doubts arise as early as in the Dies irae and large ones after the first eight measures of the Lacrimosa. And yet, with the very first measures of the Introit — Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine — we know definitely Mozart's intention, his attitude towards death . . . Death is not a terrible vision but a friend."
