Best recoding of Mozart's Requiem

The Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood is an excellent recording and performance.

FYI, that Hogwood recording is not the classic version of the Requiem completed by Mozart's student Süssmayr. The Hogwood recording is a version by Richard Maunder. So unless you are prepared for parts of movements, and entire movements not started by Mozart, sounding totally different than anything you have ever heard before; I would steer clear of the Hogwood as a starter recording.

I sing in a professional choir, and the only recording I can listen to from start to finish, over and over again, is the Peter Schreier conducted recording on Philips recorded in 1984. The catalog number is 411 420-2. The artists are: Theo Adam (Bass), Margaret Price (Soprano), Francisco Araiza (Tenor), and Trudeliese Schmidt (Mezzo-Soprano)

Another popular recording is by the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields, with artists: Cotrubas, Watts, Tear, and Shirley-Quirk; with Sir Neville Marriner conducting.
It is on Decca/London, 1987

thanks lads .. I heard it on TV about a year ago and again on the 11th and it sends chills up my spine !

thanks for the recommendations and details...

Matt

For those interested in alternative versions of the Requiem like the Maunder; the new version by Harvard professor and very fine pianist Robert Levin, recorded by the Boston Baroque, is very good. I've performed it as well, with Dr. Levin in attendance.

If you have seen a pianist Robert Levin on CDs of Mozart Piano Concertos, it is the same person. Dr. Levin improvises all the cadenzas on the spot when he plays Mozart, unlike most artists who just play a cadenza already written down. He is fun in concert, because you can go to every performance and rehearsal, and every time the cadenzas are different. Quite a creative guy!

A second vote for the Schreier/Philips recording--the soloists are excellent, as is the choral work--that's the one I listen to for pleasure and to brush up on my part when my choir sings it. The new SACD with the Netherlands Bach ensemble is also quite good, but definitely lacks the fire of the Schreier version--a more leisurely pace, maybe a bit more introspective, and definitely a different version than the traditional Sussmayr version in certain spots.