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An excellent new recording of it by conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt supplements a deeply affecting performance with other materials that might bring us closer to this subject of mystery.

Some of the mystique about the incomplete work is due to romanticizing fiction. But for all of the stories that sprang up around the genesis of Mozart's "Requiem," the truth requires no embellishment to be unbearably poignant. He was in good health when he began work in the summer of 1791. But when his fatal illness struck in November of that year, he spent the final two weeks of his life in bed working feverishly to complete the mysterious commission from a messenger dressed in black.

Mozart knew it also would be a Requiem for himself. One of his final thoughts on the last day of his life, before he became delirious, was despair at not finishing the "Requiem" and his failure to earn a little more money to leave for his wife and children.

The real mystery of Mozart's "Requiem" is who, besides Mozart, wrote it, the subject of scholarly program notes.

Mozart's student and secretary Franz Sussmayr finished the "Requiem," but Mozart's influence on the music he didn't actually write down is clear. There are thematic links and juxtapositions far beyond Sussmayr, whose own compositions are barely mediocre.

One of the features of the new recording is a CD-ROM track that displays and scrolls through Mozart's manuscript while the recording runs -- which makes obvious how much of what we hear was constructed after the composer's death.

The incomparable opening was completed before Mozart fell ill. This music moves with an emotional limp beginning on an off beat: a lonely walk but a journey also eased by consoling music. But some great music that comes later in the score, such as the "Lacrymosa," was only started by Mozart.

Mozart's sketches are lost. The details he dictated from his deathbed are too, apart from a powerful brief scene in the film "Amadeus" that is mainly historically accurate. (The dictation was to Sussmayr, not Salieri.)

The conductor of the new recording is one of the most influential of contemporary musicians, although Harnoncourt's verbal ideas in essays and books are more persuasive than his concert and recorded performances often are. Yet Harnoncourt's "Requiem" is brilliantly successful, apart from a few peculiarities. He moves the "Lacrymosa" (On that Day of Weeping) with individuality as a funeral procession, each measure building on the one preceding in the same way emotions can build on themselves.

Enesco and Lipatti

Although some releases are heavily promoted by the record company, such as the Mozart above, other gems take some digging to discover. Case in point: a two-CD set of music written by and played by Georges Enesco and Dinu Lipatti on Rumanian Electrecord that is distributed in the United States by Albany Music.

Enesco and Lipatti were among the past century's greatest musicians. Enesco was very versatile -- a great violinist and conductor, a competent pianist and a serious composer. He was godfather to Lipatti, a great pianist of uncommon sensitivity and balance, and also a composer, who died when he was 33.

Lipatti was, like many prodigies, compared to Mozart. Unlike most prodigies, Lipatti deserved the comparison -- not because he was remarkably precocious or died young, but because of the extraordinary spirit that animated his music making. Most of Lipatti's recordings as a pianist are still available on EMI Classics more than a half-century after they were made.

The collaborations on Enesco's Second and Third Violin Sonatas are revelatory, beautifully so in the earlier work and with a striking sense of fantasy in the bigger one. From the podium, Enesco secures a compelling performance with the Bucharest Philharmonic of his intriguing First Orchestral Suite, which begins with an entire movement in unison. Enesco also plays most of two of his piano pieces; Lipatti plays the finale of the Second Suite.

Lipatti's compositions are memorably appealing. The Concertino in Classical Style for Piano and Orchestra, written when he was 19, is not only generally charming but also beautifully coherent in its unfolding. Lipatti's Piano Sonata for the Left Hand is a fabulously expressive piece of music; its neglect in the concert hall is long overdue for correction.

Brahms Reissues

RCA's latest batch of Classic Library releases includes two excellent reissues of music by Johannes Brahms. On one, legendary Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter, a poetic virtuoso, gives a richly hued account of the Second Piano Concerto with Erich Leinsdorf leading the Chicago Symphony, coupled with Brahms' astonishingly big Piano Sonata No. 1.

James Levine, who becomes music director of the Boston Symphony this fall concurrently with his responsibilities leading the Metropolitan Opera, recorded Brahms' "A German Requiem" with the Chicago Symphony 20 years ago. The Chicago Symphony Chorus sings with exceptional beauty, power and transparency. Baritone Hakan Hagegard's relatively light-timbered baritone voice is applied with true artistry, but Kathleen Battle's singing is only generically beautiful with poor diction.

The recordings

Mozart's "Requiem"

Christine Schafer, Bernardina Fink, Kurt Streit, Gerald Finley, Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 58705

Enescu and Lipatti interpret Enescu and Lipatti

Bucharest Philharmonic; Georges Enesco, conductor, piano, violin; Dinu Lipatti, piano

Electrecord EDC 430/431

Brahms: Second Piano Concerto & First Piano Sonata

Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

RCA 60860

Brahms: "A German Requiem"

Kathleen Battle, Hakan Hagegard; Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; James Levine, conductor

RCA 60861

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