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Copyright 2002 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

September 11, 2002 Wednesday, Final / All

SECTION: ARTS & LIFE; Pg. E1

LENGTH: 743 words

HEADLINE: A perfect tribute to lives unfinished

BYLINE: Donald Rosenberg, Plain Dealer Classical Music Critic

BODY:
CLASSICAL MUSIC

It is eminently fitting that musicians around the world have chosen to perform Mozart's Requiem this morning to commemorate the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Unlike Berlioz, Verdi or other beloved composers who wrote works set to the Latin Mass for the dead, Mozart was unable to complete this act of creation. Just as the lives of the victims of Sept. 11 were cut short, Mozart died at age 35 in December 1791, leaving to colleagues and future composers the impossible task of matching his inimitable musical voice in the Requiem.

Yet whatever version of the Mozart Requiem musicians opt to perform (and there are many), they are touching upon some o...