Opus Ultimum:

About the Book

Mozart died in December 1791 before finishing his Requiem in D minor, K. 626 — and the mystery of what he actually wrote, and what someone else completed, has fascinated music lovers for over two centuries. Daniel N. Leeson, a recognized Mozart scholar, tells the full story of this extraordinary piece in a way that reads more like a gripping narrative than a musicology textbook. No footnotes, no Köchel number breakdowns, no academic jargon — just the remarkable human drama behind the most famous unfinished composition in Western music.

The cast of characters is genuinely strange. There is Count Walsegg, the secretive aristocrat who commissioned the Requiem anonymously and intended to pass it off as his own work. There is Constanze, Mozart's widow, who fought fiercely to control the manuscript and its legacy. And there is Franz Xaver Süssmayr, the composer chosen to complete the work — whose contributions remain controversial to this day. Was he a plagiarist? A skilled collaborator working from Mozart's sketches? Or simply a lesser talent doing his best with impossible material?

Leeson works through these questions carefully, drawing on scraps of manuscript paper, conflicting accounts, and two centuries of scholarship. He also explores the broader drama: the reassembly of the manuscript, accusations of forgery, and what he calls a "festival of misfortunes" surrounding the Requiem's early history. Written for curious listeners rather than specialists, this is one of the most accessible and engaging accounts of a piece of music that still moves audiences around the world.