Verdi: Pezzi Sacri

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Myung-Whun Chung established his Verdi credentials with an outstanding Otello that combined dramatic fervor with lyric delicacy. Those attributes categorize this performance of Verdi's late Sacred Pieces. Verdi conceived of the first three pieces as a dramatic unit--an a capella, gentle ode to the Virgin Mary flanked by a large-scale Stabat Mater and a Te Deum that recalls his great Requiem in scale and intensity. The fourth piece, tacked on by Verdi's publisher, is an austerely gentle and harmonically adventurous "Ave Maria." Chung adds two more Ave Marias, including Desdemona's from Otello, and concludes the disc with the "Libera me, Domine" originally written for a multicomposer commemorative mass for Rossini. Verdi later adapted the entire movement to his Requiem and it's fascinating to hear this first sketch for that terror-laden work. Here, it and the Otello aria are adequately sung by Carmela Remigio. Chorus and orchestra are first-rate, Chung masterful. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

Requiem Aeternam & Kyrie
Dies Irae
Tuba Mirum
Liber Scriptus
Quid Sum Miser
Rex Tremendae
Recordare
Ingemisco
Confutatis
Lacrimosa

Tracks:

Domine Jesu Christe
Hostias
IV. Sanctus
V. Agnus Dei
VI. Lux Aeterna
Libera Me
Dies Irae
Requiem Aeternam
Libera Me
I. Ave Maria - Chicago Symphony Chorus
II. Stabat Mater - Chicago Symphony Chorus
III. Laudi Alla Vergine Maria - Chicago Symphony Chorus
IV. Te Deum - Chicago Symphony Chorus

Customer Reviews:

An Energetic and highly Dramatic Verdi Requiem.......2007-06-10

Of all of Verdi's latter works, the Verdi requiem is perhaps my favorite after Otello. Although it was written as a Requiem mass, I find that Verdi's composition recalls something that sounds more operatic than parochial, and for this reason, I don't think that it should be treated merely as a church piece. Rather, it should be seen a piece that combines both the elements of the sacred and secular emotions. This recording, one of Decca's most prestigious achievements in the studio, clearly ranks itself as one of the most exciting and beautiful renditions of the Verdi requiem, spearheaded by the Hungarian conductor Sir Georg Solti with the Vienna Philharmonic and the soloists Dame Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, and Martti Talvela. Although Solti has been accused of being overly emphatic with his conducting, I think the religious nature of the work tamed his hammy hand and made something beautiful and reverent out of it. No, this doesn't sound like Wagner, and I think that is all for the better. The more reflective parts are played with the kind of virtuosity that only an orchestra like the Vienna Philharmonic can offer, and the more balls against the wall are given a drive that no other recording gives. The Dies Irae is an excellent example of this. This is the second remastering of this awesome choral work by Decca, and you can hear so many details being given more emphasis by the engineers. In short, I think this is the best sounding Verdi requiem on the market, as proven by Decca's quality engineering.

The soloists are one of the most distinguished quartets ever to have sung their respective parts. Luciano Pavarotti in his prime sings the tenor with a meltingly tender line and a phrasing that no one will ever anticipate to surpass. Talvela is the most sonorous and darkest bass ever to sing the gorgeous Confutatis. Horne imbues the alto part with her dark timbre and her graceful phrasing. Her Liber Scriptus, Agnus Dei, and Lux Aeterna are rivalled only by Christa Ludwig and Grace Bumbry. And then there's Joan Sutherland. Although several listeners gripe about the overparted sound of her voice, I think it actually fits the piece quite well. Joan Sutherland had an amazingly huge voice, as large as Birgit Nilsson's whenever she sang any repertoire. It may not be as dark as let's say...Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Zinka Milanov, or Antonietta Stella, but her ease with the difficult and high lying soprano part makes her singing a treat to listen to. I still love Freni and Gheorghiu in the part, but Joan Sutherland is one of the very best sopranos and no one should criticize her for her diction since it actually sounded very good here.

To sum up, one of the best Verdi Requiems on the market, perhaps the best if you want theater and the sacred combined in one indelible package. This CD set also comes with the composer's Quattro Pezzi Sacre. An essential set!

One of two definitive Verdi Requiems.......2007-05-23

Including the DVD performance with von Karajan/La Scala, I own ten recordings of the Verdi Requiem. Putting the DVD performance aside for a moment, this recording and the Fritz Reiner on Decca Verdi: Requiem are the two that I pull out most frequently. I am biased in that I grew up with this recording which my mother bought after she sang the piece in college in the mid 1960s. Since these two are my favorites, I will compare and contrast.

The appropriateness of having Sutherland as the soprano soloist has always been debated. She has her strengths and weaknesses like any other singer, and oddly enough her quiet high notes aren't the best on record. But her breath control throughout (and especially at the end of the Offertorio) is stunning, and she truly sounds terrified at the beginning of the Libera Me. The duets with Horne have a solidity that is found in most of their work together, sounding much more like a single voice that's managed to produce two notes.

Price's performance with Reiner is legendary. Her low range, which is called upon frequently in this piece as well as the high register, is stronger than Sutherland's, and her quiet high notes are excellent. It is also argued that since Verdi wrote this part for the original Aida, Price is more appropriate to the part.

Horne embodies "mezzo-soprano" singing and is ideal for the part. Her high register is easy but forceful, and she has one of the most dramatic chest voices there is. Elias is also very good, but there's a polish and a variety in Horne's colors that keep me coming back to her recording. It's difficult to believe that the Liber Scriptus, dark and commanding, and the Lux Aeterna, light and ethereal, were sung by the same person.

Pavarotti early in his career, or Björling at the end of it. If only the latter had made the recording a few years before, but he didn't. It remains one of the definitive performances of the part, his tone is remarkably consistent, high notes not quite as easy as they could be, but remarkable. However, Pavarotti in the 60s was a force of nature. His voice is expressive, the second high B-flat in the Ingemisco (on the word "dextra") is quite possibly the best high B-flat sung on record; he sounds like he could have gone UP to the E-flat instead of down. He had also done enough work with Sutherland and Horne that he blends with them excellently.

Talvela and Tozzi are both BIG voices, both true basses, and both excellent. I think that Tozzi gets my vote here for color, though Talvela is an absolute rock of tone and pitch. Talvela also tends towards the Germanic pronunciation of some of the Latin (Quia being pronounced as Kvia, for instance) which occasionally doesn't blend.

Both recordings have the excellent Vienna Philharmonic. Solti, as usual, tends towards the faster side, and Reiner towards the slower. The recording itself is much more dimensional for the Solti since the better part of a decade had passed and the technology had improved, but the newest remastering of the Reiner (on the Decca Legends series) improves it considerably over past efforts. Solti goes for an operatic, dramatic, and occasionally over the top performance, and Reiner is more reverent and restrained. Since Verdi is the master of opera and wrote the Requiem in the style with which he was most comfortable, I think Solti has an extremely valid point conducting it the way he does. Both versions work, both versions hold together, and I wouldn't be without either of them.

DEATH, SALVATION, VERDI & SOLTI: HOW CAN YOU MISS?.......2007-02-07

I think the Verdi Requiem is the greatest Italian opera ever composed.
The old master managed to summon all his experience in the opera house and take the great themes of death, salvation, redemption and forgiveness and weave them into a stunning theatrical experience! (This is definitely not music for a liturgy.) A fantastic performance! Sutherland, freed from the constraints of her husband's boring conducting. Pavarotti, still young and making music instead of doing a "celebrity gig". Horne and Talvela at their considerable best. And Solti, unleashing the furies as only he could. This is a great recording.
(But also check out the Reiner recording with Leontyne Price & Jussi
Bjoerling. Talk about heavenly singing! My own, personal desert island recording. And Solti's later version from Chicago with Price is also a knockout!)

Berlioz: Requiem; Boito: Prologue to Mefistofele

Average customer rating:

Outstanding
Great but not the Ultimate
A superb modern performance of the Berlioz Requiem.
Utterly magnificent!
Fantastic Recording of a Fantastic Work!

Berlioz: Requiem; Boito: Prologue to Mefistofele

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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Durufle: Requiem, Mass-Con Jubilo, Motets / Plasson, von Otter
Dvorák: Requiem

ASIN: B000003CTJ
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

I. Requiem Et Kyrie
II. Dies Irae
III. Quid Sum Miser
IV. Rex Tremendae
V. Quaerens Me
VI. Lacrymosa
VII. Offertorium
VIII. Hostias

Tracks:

IX. Sanctus - John Aler
X. Agnus Dei - John Aler
I. Prelude And Chorus - John Cheek
II. Instrumental Scherzo And Dramatic Intermezzo
III. Vocal Scherzo
IV. Final Psalmody
Te Deum

Amazon.com essential recording

As one would expect, Robert Shaw's rendition of the Requiem is magnificently polished, with choral singing that is beyond compare. The drama is not quite as pronounced as with Davis and Munch, but the work's majestic architecture stands clearly revealed. For once, Telarc's thunderous, bass-heavy pickup adds something to the sonic picture. --Ted Libbey

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding.......2005-12-28

Of all the modern recordings of Berlioz' Requiem, Robert Shaw's is the best on every count.

I wouldn't want to be without it.

However, I also wouldn't want to spend a day without the immortal Charles Munch/Boston Symphony version. Especially in the stunning new hybrid SACD remastering.

Simply, this is one of those times when it is just common sense to own two best recordings of the same work.

If you love this work and know these two recordings, you understand why.

Great but not the Ultimate.......2004-09-09

Whenever I hear works like this (or Mozart's or Verdi's or Brahm's Requiems) I am still in awe of the intellectual and emotional depths to which the composer plunged. This is a good, some might say great recording. I too am a Telarc fan and think their work is of the highest quality. Saying that, I will say that I found the work slightly "sterile" at least compared to Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic recording that is nothing short of titantic.

Beecham seemed to put his whole heart and soul into the project whereas the current recording is one of intellectual rather than emotional interest. I judge Requiems an odd way - by listening to the Lacrymosa. Whether it is Mozart or Verdi or Berliotz, this particular element seems to hit emotional paydirt. Judging in this case I find it (again) entirely adequate but without the verve of the Beecham recording.

One other thing - many times the orchestra overwhelms the vocalist and this should NEVER be the case unless directly ordered by the composer. What's more, this should never happen in a modern recording studio.

A superb modern performance of the Berlioz Requiem........2003-12-12

Two hundred years ago today, Louis-Hector Berlioz was born. This is a day for me to comment on a few of my favorite performances of his works, some of them "favorites by acclamation" and others simply those in which I find special merit, enough so that they are frequently in my CD players.

Berlioz's Requiem is, with Giuseppe Verdi's "Manzoni" Requiem, one of the two great dramatic renderings of this text; works that have stood the test of time. If the Verdi work is the more frequently performed and operatic Requiem, the Berlioz is the more "forward-looking" and not at all lacking in its own drama and grandeur.

One needs to go "back into the vaults" to find a recorded performance of this essential Berlioz work that matches Robert Shaw's stunning version in its balance of sublime beauty and visceral excitement, not to mention its spacious sonics, all the way back to the much earlier performances by Charles Munch and Sir Thomas Beecham in fact. And then, of course, one pays a fairly heavy penalty in terms of sonics.

Despite the resources required, the work hardly lacks for "decent" recordings that are more modern than the Beecham and Munch ones, by such esteemed Berlioz specialists as Sir Colin Davis and Charles Dutoit, as well as by James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Andre Previn. But "decent" is just not good enough; some of these fail to catch fire in one way or another, and none of them have the choral excellence of this Shaw recording under consideration. Only the Dutoit (in an otherwise curiously unengaging performance) can come close to matching Shaw in terms of recorded sound. (In fairness, I confess to not yet having heard John Eliot Gardiner's recording. It may, in its HIP [historically informed performance] way, be the equal of this Shaw recording.)

Shaw finds the appropriate dynamic contrasts in the work, from the gentlest supplications of the "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei" to the most violent outbursts of the "Dies irae" and "Rex tremendae." The sound - and the perception of depth and spatial effects - is of demonstration quality, particularly in the "Tuba mirum" section of the "Dies irae," for which four brass bands are disposed at the extreme corners of the recording venue at Atlanta Symphony Hall.

The blazing originality of Berlioz shines through everywhere, not just in the instrumental (and choral) outbursts. The otherworldly effect in the "Hostias" of having flutes and trombones separated by many octaves, to represent the immensity of the distance from Heaven to Hell, is captured perfectly, right down to the trombones' pedal-tone growl (just one of many Berlioz innovations). John Aler, arguably our very best "American French tenor," is splendid in the "Sanctus," and the Shaw chorus, needless to say, is one that is seldom - if ever - topped.

John Aler can also be found on a Delos recording of another Berlioz work in a similar vein, the Te Deum (conducted by Dennis Keene), a recording I recommend highly. Regrettably, Robert Shaw never committed the Berlioz Te Deum to disc; it would have made a perfect filler. (This might be because of the special antiphonal "call and response" requirements between orchestra and organ that Berlioz takes pains to specify. Aler/Keene had the benefit of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for their recording, a perfect venue for the work.)

But the two fillers in this boxed set - the Prologue to Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele and Verdi's Te Deum - which earlier filled a Telarc LP - are nonetheless excellent "fits" for the Berlioz Requiem.

I can remember, a quarter-century ago, when Norman Treigle "owned" the role of Mefistofele while he was at the New York City Opera (an ownership that was subsequently taken over by Samuel Ramey upon Treigle's unfortunate death by suicide). If John Cheek isn't quite the match for Treigle or Ramey, he doesn't miss by much. And the ASO performance and Telarc recording quality are pretty much assured of shaking your rafters just as well as the dramatic parts of the Berlioz work will.

The Verdi work is equally fine, but not nearly as cataclysmic as his "Manzoni" Requiem or Berlioz's own Te Deum.

The age of these performances (1984 for the Berlioz and 1979 for the fillers) doesn't show a bit. And neither does Berlioz the composer, 200 years old today.

Bon anniversaire, M. Berlioz!

Bob Zeidler

Utterly magnificent!.......2003-06-02

A while ago I gave my opinion of Dutoit's recording of the Berlioz Requiem on this site, and took the opportunity to sing the praise of this magnificent work - extensively so, and I won't repeat myself here. But every time I hear it, it again seems to grow in stature. In fact, I feel this work is so profound that it is more than worthy to stand alongside those other very greatest choral works in history, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Bach's Hohe Messe.
And this recording must be the best one made of it (there really ought to be many, many more to choose from, though!). That Shaw knows how to get the best out of a chorus we knew, but frankly I haven't been unreservedly happy with his handling of the orchestra in some other recordings (Mahler's Eight seems a relevant case in point). However, no such reservations here. Details are meticulously moulded, tempo's perfectly judged, and dynamics closely observed (though a little more 'swell' would have been welcome here and there). Rhythmic articulation is stunningly crisp both in chorus and orchestra (notice the choral singing in the Kyrie!). John Aler is the perfect soloist in the Sanctus, giving an unforced, deeply dignified reading of a piece that too often is allowed to veer towards the operatic - and this Requiem certainly isn't opera!
To top things of all these glorious sounds are caught in the best Telarc fashion, with completely natural perspectives and a thrillingly spacial feel to the four brass bands - not only in the Tuba Mirum, but in their quieter parts elsewhere too. Details remain clearly audible when textures thicken. All in all, a recording that allows full and unhampered immersion in this deeply moving and at times overwhelming masterpiece. I would still like to here John Elliot Gardiner's take on this work, as I did after hearing the Dutoit, but I doubt he can do very much better than this.

Fantastic Recording of a Fantastic Work!.......2003-02-08

The Berlioz Requiem is seldom performed, simply because of the sheer enormity of the production and the number of musicians involved. The large main orchestra is surrounded by four brass choirs, in addition to a choir of several hundred voices. There are no less than 16 tympanists, 18 trombonists, 12 horns and nine cymbalists.

Tracks:

Messa Da Requiem: I. Requiem & Kyrie: Requiem Aeternam - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: I. Requiem & Kyrie: Kyrie Eleison - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Dies Irae - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Tuba Mirum - Mors Stupebit - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Liber Scriptus - Dies Irae - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Quid Sum Miser - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Rex Tremendae - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Recordare - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Ingemisco - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Confutatis Maledictis - Dies Irae - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: II. Sequence (Dies Irae): Lacrimosa - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: III. Offertorio: Domine Jesu Christe - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: III. Offertorio: Hostias Et Preces - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: IV. Sanctus - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: V. Agnus Dei - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Christa Ludwig/Nicolai Gedda/Nicolai Ghiaurov/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz

Tracks:

Messa Da Requiem: VI. Lux Aeterna - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: VII. Libera Me: Libera Me - Dies Irae - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: VII. Libera Me: Requiem Aeternam - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Messa Da Requiem: VII. Libera Me: Libera Me - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Ave Maria - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Stabat Mater - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Laudi Alla Vergine - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Te Deum - Janet Baker/Philharmonia Chor/Wilhelm Pitz

Customer Reviews:

Schwarzkopf sings Verdi.......2007-04-04

There are very few recordings available of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing Verdi (anything beside Falstaff?), so for that reason alone, this CD deserves to be treasured.

Schwarzkopf's is a unique sound, and her Verdi Requiem sounds like no other. Another reviewer praised her high B-flat in the Libera Me - I totally agree, it is wonderful.

For those more accustomed to Pavarotti or Domingo as the tenor soloist, Gedda may not be for all tastes. His is a much more lyrical approach. But if conductor Giulini was looking for a more "reverent" sound among his soloists, he certainly didn't err in his choice of Gedda.

Nicolai Ghiaurov, on the other hand, is a pure blood & guts Verdian. From the first note out of his mouth, you know he is capable of blowing down the house with his immense cavernous sound. He is really fantastic to listen to.

The Requiem was recorded in September 1963 and April 1964, and digitally remastered in 1997. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if the remastering was very well done. The Philharmonia Chorus, a spectacular choral ensemble, sounds very distorted at times, especially when they come at you at full volume. The Dies Irae really suffers because of this.

The accompanying Quattro Pezzi Sacri, on the other hand, has fared much better. This recording was actually made earlier (December 1962), yet the engineered sound is positively heavenly. The spectacular sound of this chorus can be much better appreciated in this piece. This recording of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri is a real treasure that you won't forget.

Texts and translations included. One star off for the poor engineered sound of the Requiem.

TREMENDAE MAJESTATIS.......2005-09-13

This set can be recommended from two points of view. Firstly it contains all Verdi's mature choral works; and in the second place this account of the Requiem is perhaps the greatest ever recorded. After the Requiem came Otello and Faslstaff, and last of all he gave us the Four Sacred Pieces. Two of these are for unaccompanied voices, one in particular featuring an allegedly special scale, which I doubt we would be aware of if we had not been told. They are only described as `academic' or as `exercises' because they are by Verdi, who put up a smokescreen of self-ascribed simplicity all his career. In fact he had always studied and loved the mediaeval Italian polyphonists and these two compositions can easily rank with similar works by Brahms in my opinion. In Brahms or Bach we take the academic element for granted as all part of the style, which is entirely in the German tradition. Verdi was almost as exclusively based in his own country's music - all he took from German music was features of style that Italy had given to Germany in the first place, and we hear him at that with the explicit reference to Schubert's A minor quartet at the start of the Requiem. However there is more unaccompanied vocal work in his Requiem than in anything in the German choral/orchestral repertory, and that should not surprise us.

There is a slightly average liner-note that assures us solemnly that `it is not necessary to be a practising Catholic...to conduct Verdi's sacred music'. I guess that lets Toscanini off the hook, and I don't think Giulini's performance of the Te Deum is quite the equal of his. However in the Requiem Giulini seems to me to surpass everyone I've ever heard, Toscanini among them. There is not an Italian among the soloists, and when I listen to, say, Schwarzkopf's exquisite falling phrase at `Salva me' I still experience a slight longing to hear it dragged down in a lachrymose Italian tone, but they have too much integrity for cheap compromises, they are simply terrific in their own right, and Giulini supplies the Italian element. His sense for this great score seems to me perfect. He understands Verdi's alternations of fierce and almost brutal power with relaxed lyricism. Verdi's energy is physical, not nervous like Beethoven's. He is always powerful but rarely or never tense. The soloists do not miss a trick either. The monstrous demands of first climax of the Kyrie, with the soprano required to dominate her colleagues, choir and orchestra flat-out, are achieved grandly, and at the other extreme they are sublime in all their solos, and the great phrase at Tantus labor non sit cassus is wringing with emotion but perfectly under control. The Philharmonia chorus of the day (1963) was probably the best in the world, and the orchestra probably likewise. At full tilt in the Dies irae, with the spotlight on the brass at Tuba mirum, the cellos climbing above the treble clef at the start of the Offertorium, the celestial bassoon obbligato in the Quid sum miser - everything is just right and more.

For me Verdi's Requiem is the greatest choral masterpiece since Handel himself, and his Te Deum for me surpasses Berlioz and Bruckner and is indeed the finest setting since Handel's own mighty production celebrating the ludicrous victory at Dettingen. Giulini is excellent by any standard, but I still miss the incomparable surge and thrust that Toscanini brought to it. However there is a startling bonus here in the form of a solo of a few bars right at the end from Janet Baker no less. I wonder what that cost -- the spot is normally given to a member of the chorus. The Stabat Mater is powerful and affecting, and the chorus perform superbly on their own in the other two works. The recording is not awfully `forward' and it doesn't always treat Ghiaurov very well, but otherwise I must say my Sony equipment coped perfectly adequately, and it was a relief to be rid of the surface swish and pre-echo at points on my LP set.

I checked the text and translation of the Dies irae and the Stabat Mater, and the standard was a lot better than I have been encountering lately on other productions. There are two minor misprints in the Stabat Mater (`corni' for `cordi' and `pagis' for `plagis'). `Fac me crucem inebriari' is not Latin, and we can be pretty sure the text ought to be `...cruce...', with this line and the next meaning literally `Make me drunk with the cross and with the blood of the Son'. Otherwise my only comment is that the stanza `To stand with thee...' should be governed by the verb `I desire'. I lack the discernment of the liner-note author who finds the stanzas of varying literary merit.

Giulini did at least one later version, but I never yet heard one to equal this, from him or from anyone. I have no real difficulty with the recording, and I greatly hope you do not either.

Great Performance, TERRIBLE SOUND buyers beware !!!.......2005-05-25

This is indubitably a great performance. The quartet of soloist sing superbly. Schwarzkopf's high C (pianissimo) in the Liberame remains unsurpassed. The other famous recording of this work is the Shaw/Atlanta for Telarc. The soprano, in Shaw's recording, Susan Dunn, while also very good, cannot sing the same note in pianissimo as written by Verdi.

My beef with the Giulini recording is the sound. In loud passages such as the Dies Irae the distortion is so pronounced it is laughable. You would think that for a large record company such as EMI to reissue a recording they would spend a few bucks and do a decent remastering job. But this is not the case. The Shaw recording simply knocks the socks off the Giulini in terms of sonics. Hell, even the Toscannini sounds better and it was recording in the 40's.

In short, Giulini gets 5 stars for performance and no stars for sound.

An amazing achievement.......2004-06-21

Verdi's Requiem, like many of his later works, is extremely demanding when comes to bringing it to life in full strength. You need powerful orchestral and choral forces, extremely potent and expressive voices and of course a really insightfull conductor capable of holding all together and making the drama and meanings come to life.

Fortunately it looks that everyone who tried approaching this masterpiece tried its best. But among them are the real achievers. And I will mention only the three of them I think really need to be mentioned in this context: first, at least historically, is Da Sabata. I am one of not so many lucky listeners who has his edition feturing Maria Caniglia. And that is an achievement approaching perfection. The next one is Toscanini with his incisiveness which works its powerrs all the way through his 1951 live recording. And then is the recording at hand here.

This is one of the recordings documenting the glorious (so unfortunately dawned) era of music making at its highest. It shouldn't come as a surprise that behind it one finds Carlo Maria Giulini. This is just one of his greatest achievements that are landmarking the history of music. The attention to detail, so insightfull choice of tempo, the ability of conducting music so flowlessly to its highs and deep downs, the ability of using musical powers under his command to their very best and not least the profound understanding of the musical score are shown here in their full power. It grabs you from the beginning and you will find yourself under its powers everafter.

The choir might be the best you find on disc. It is highly responsive and produces some of the greatest moments of this piece. Along comes the Philarhmonia Orchestra in beatiful sound and very attentive and responsive to its mastreful conductor.

The soloists are as much as you could wish for. Envolved, musically perfect, rendering the amount of human drama that this piece comprises, the true voices of humanity you might say. I am especially delighted with Christa Ludwig which seems a different singer from her recording under Karajan (recording available from Deutsche Grammophone) and Ghiaurov who displays such a sensibility along with his powerful voice. Damme Schwartzkopf and Gedda are also very good although I couldn't stop myself dreaming at Franco Corelli, giving the amazing musical power unleashed here (you can hear him in the recording of the verdian requiem under Mehta).

As one of the other reviewers mentioned if you want only one recording of Verdi's Requiem you have to have this one. You will hear inner voices inside the orchestra, choir and soloists you will not hear anywhere else. The only real threat to this recording is Da Sabata's which is set back just by a poorer sound which makes it harder to come out with the greatest effect.

Heroic.......2003-11-06

Verdi's requiem often sounds more like opera than mass, and it seems Giulini and cast are not ashamed of that, either. The performance has tremendous dynamic range - heroically bright when the tenor first blasts out the "Kyrie", dark and brooding in the "Requiem", bleak and helpless in "Agnus Dei", and everything in between. The recording supports this - turn up the volume to audible levels at the start of "Requiem" and be blasted out of the room by "Dies Irae". Schwarzkopf is especially gripping, like she's trying to physically hold on to you with her voice.

Tracks:

I. Requiem And Kyrie
II. Dies Irae
III. Offertorio

Tracks:

I. Sanctus
II. Agnus Dei
III. Lux Aeterna
IV. Libera Me
V. 'Te Deum'

Amazon.com essential recording

The 1951 NBC broadcast Verdi Requiem approved by Toscanini for commercial release in the RCA/BMG Toscanini Collection (Vol. 63) is superseded by this broadcast from November 23, 1940, on both sonic and artistic grounds. Music & Arts' clear, well-focused sound (transferred, one suspects, from "inside" source material) captures the warmth and bottom often missing from the Maestro's harsher-sounding commercial discs. All of the vocal contributions, notwithstanding minor but glaring lapses from the soloists, surpass their later counterparts, especially the supple and well-rehearsed Westminster Choir. Moreover, Toscanini's broader tempi and greater flexibility allow text and music to coalesce in a manner few conductors have achieved, including Toscanini himself in subsequent performances. The present concert opened with a lovely performance of the Te Deum, a work the Maestro actually coached under the composer's approving eye. Excellent notes by Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs round out this important release. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

terrific !!!.......2006-07-28

This recording is one of the best of all Verdi - Requiem recs. Toscanini, who (I think) the greatest Verdi conductor and his NBC Symphony with Westminster Chorus, performed it so wonderful! It is sometime darkful, sometime very passionate, powerful, terrible... You can see all the drammatic perspective to death of Verdi. And you can easily impressed with this recording.

This is the 1940 (early) performance of Toscanini, and more succesful than his later 1951 rec. In that occasion, there is no weak link. By the way, the solo quartet group is really amazing. I think, the most amazing pne of all is (of course) Jussi Björling. He is the best performer of "Ingemisco" section. In that movement, there is a heavenly, other-worldly happiness and hope. And Björling is glorious there! Nicola Moscona is a really good basso-profondo, who sang "Confutatis" very drammatic, too. "Dies irae" which the most terrible movement of all Requiem and all "Dies irae" in the history (!), the orchestra and chorus performed it in a "shining" mood!! The blows of Gran Cassa has the same effect of blows of Hammer! In this section, you can feel the terror, pessimist atmosphere of "The Day of Judgement". And this is the motto section of Requiem, it is coming three times in whole work, and at all shattering, very impressive.

Te Deum, which the last movement of Quatro pezzi sacri, is a majestic music of Verdi. And once again, Toscanini is marvellous, he also worked on it with Verdi himself, already.

This is a must have for any music lovers and searchers for a gold rec. of Requiem.

Highly recommended.

Toscanini's best Verdi Requiem.......2003-10-24

I have heard a recording of this broadcast concert and, despite some surface noise from the original source, it was clear that this may be the best recorded performance by Toscanini of the Verdi "Requiem." I can't imagine why RCA Victor never issued this. Of course, they reportedly only issued recordings that Toscanini approved and there's some evidence that he wasn't always the best judge of his recordings. Certainly the 1951 concert recording, also from Carnegie Hall, has better fidelity, but this is clearly the better performance. It also has a better "cast," especially Jussi Bjoerling, the gifted Swedish tenor (and a classic "prima donna"), in the "Ingemisco." The Westminster Choir, who often worked with Toscanini prior to his associations with Peter Wilhousky and Robert Shaw, are a plus in this performance. The NBC Symphony is in top form, too.

Yes, it's good that the concert took place in Carnegie Hall, rather than Studio 8-H. Actually, Toscanini's longtime record producer, Charles O'Connell, said (in his memoirs) that they recognized (even in the 1940's) that Carnegie Hall was a better locale for recordings, so many of the "studio" recordings took place there, rather than at Radio City. A few NBC concerts were also held in Carnegie Hall, which became the regular home of the NBC Symphony in the fall of 1950, when Studio 8-H was remodeled into a television studio.

I have long admired Toscanini's March 1954 concert broadcast of Verdi's "Te Deum" and I'm sure that this earlier version is every bit as good. This was Verdi's last completed work and it apparently had special meaning to the Maestro. Long sections of it are a capella and it is very powerful, deeply spiritual work.

An ESSENTIAL Item for the Toscanini Collector!.......1998-09-17

Most of the Music & Arts transfers of Toscanini broadcasts are in the highest possible "in house" quality of sound, as typified by this magnificent issue, which should rise to the top of the heap of all Toscanini releases of the Verdi "Requiem".

Though the later 1951 broadcast (with corrections from the dress rehearsal) of the Requiem is contained in the "authorized" and "official" RCA / BMG Toscanini Collection (Vol. 63), the reading is overly- aggressive and harsh, defaced as it is by the excessive use of an RCA audio peak limiter during its original recording: the massive drum beats and climaxes are severely "squashed", and the sonic balances and tipped to the upper midrange. Toscanini is not as relaxed and lyrical as he is in this supremely satisfying 1940 account, which should be in EVERY music lover's historic performance collection.

The broadcast on the present CD was taken down by RCA engineers while the music magically unfolded to the audience in Carnegie Hall: obviously it was thought that such a huge, massive work would benefit from the acoustic of a 'real' concert auditorium, so Studio 8-H was not used, to the eternal gratitude of music lovers who can revel in the richness and warmth of this recording. There are no highs above about 6 kHz, and some slight surface noise or distortion on occasion: no Cedar filtering or excessive re- equalization has been used, so the transfer sounds immediate and refreshingly accurate in its genuine solid mono.

But even an audiophile would not be disappointed with this recording, if she or he truly loved the Requiem, for this is indeed one of the most stunning and perfect recreations of it that has ever been captured on a record: the soloists and chorus sing like angels, and the orchestra and Toscanini give their utmost in devotion and energy, without going over the line as they did in the 1951 version.

The affecting "Te Deum" was, as I recall, not included in the actual broadcast of 23 November 1940, but was played immediately before the Requiem for the concert audience at Carnegie Hall: Toscanini favored this pairing and did it several times. The reading is as grave and powerful as the valedictory performance at one of his last NBC concerts (Vol. 62 of the RCA / BMG Collection) though it seems more spontaneous and yet better- controlled in this earlier broadcast.

Tracks:

Adoro te devote - Gregorian Chant
Requiem: Pie Jesu - Gabriel Faure
Visita, quaesumus Domine - William Byrd_
Draw On, Sweet Night - The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter
O Can Ye Sew Cushions - The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter
The Silver Swan - Orlando Gibbons
Down By The Sally Gardens - The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter
In manus tuas - The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter
Miserere - Gregorio Allegri
Tantum ergo - Gabriel Faure
Justorum animae - William Byrd_
O quam suavis - William Byrd_
Laudi alla Vergine Maria - Giuseppe Verdi
Alma Redemptoris Mater - Gregorian Chant
What Sweeter Music - John Rutter

Amazon.com

Compilations from a performer's catalog are often musically hit-and-miss and programmatically shaky. But when you have a catalog as strong, varied, and musically rich as the Cambridge Singers', the question is not how to find appropriate material but how to reduce the first-rate choices to fit on a single CD. This one offers a wide range of selections, including chant, Renaissance sacred and secular works, folk song, and 20th-century pieces. Every track contains a gem--music and performance--so it's hard to list only a few highlights. There's the Pie Jesu from Fauré's Requiem, Allegri's famous Miserere, several classics by Byrd, Orlando Gibbons's popular "The silver swan," and two masterful folk-song arrangements by Rutter. But among the 15 works featured, John Sheppard's "In manus tuas" (one of the glories of the English Renaissance) and Rutter's "What sweeter music" (his most famous piece) alone make this disc worth owning. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

Bad day at work? Enter another realm.......2005-07-31

This is a wonderfully mellow selection of choral works in the English tradition, and a particularly well-balanced program: You can set the CD to play and relax with a good glass of wine.

The Cambridge Singers come across as a single, smooth instrument--not a group of belting soloists. Rutter's arrangements and orchestrations avoid here some of the cutesy movie-style effects on some of the Christmas albums.

This album is a compilation from previous Cambridge Singers recordings, so it's very suitable as a gift from someone who has expressed an early interest in English choral music, to lead them into the area. The CD is a wonderful value and highly recommended.

Ahhhh...........2004-06-30

Very pleasant music for rattled nerves. I'm no expert on choral music, but this is a calming and enjoyable CD to listen to while driving.

Average customer rating:

Great performances from a great choir.
Out of the Mouths of Children...

Heavenly Voices

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Fugues | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Partsongs | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Les Choristes
Angel Voices 3
Best Loved Christmas Carols
Once Were Angels: The Tradition of Boy Trebles
Visions

ASIN: B0002RUAAG
Release Date: 2004-10-05

Tracks:

Franck: Paris Angelicus
Mendelssohn: Hymn of Praise - I waited for the Lord
Verdi: Quattro pezzi sacri - Laudi alla vergine Maria
Mendelssohn: Elijah - Lift thine eyes
Greene: The Lord is my shepherd
Faure: Requiem - Pie Jesu
Franck: Choeur de Paques - Alleluia!
Faure: Ave Maria Op.67, No.2
Schubert: Gott ist mein Hirt
Ireland: Ex ore innocentium
Hadley: I sing of a maiden
Faure: Messe Basse
Karg-Elert: Dritte Sinfonische Kanzone (Fuge, Kanzone und Epilog) Op.85, No.3

Customer Reviews:

Great performances from a great choir........2007-03-08

King's College is a reliably solid choir. Set to doing a mix of challenging pieces, they rise splendidly and with moving effect through a range of musical styles or types. I didn't grow up on the English choral style. Frankly, I prefer German composers and that style of arrangement, but the King's College Choir is so good and so controlled that I found it impossible to be bothered by my petty likes or dislikes. Instead, I was gladly and happily swept along by the sound of Heavenly Voices.

Out of the Mouths of Children..........2005-07-30

Who can resist the incredible purity of sound garnered by a boys choir? On this beautifully recorded CD the Boy's of the King's College Cambridge Choir are conducted by Stephen Cleobury in the hall in which they perform - that otherworldly resonance of King's College Chapel. This collection separates the men from the boys in that the usual full Choir is all male with men singing the tenor and bass roles and the boys singing the soprano and alto roles.

The works performed fall into the 'old chestnut' category: Franck's 'Panis Angelicus', Faure's 'Pie Jesu' from the Requiem, Mendelssohn's 'Lift thine eyes' form Elijah, etc. There are a few works less familiar (and equally as lovely) such as the Karg-Elert 'Dritte Sinfonische Kanzone (Fuge, Kanzone und Epilog)' Op.85, No.3. The intonation and musicality of the choir is impeccable and the tone is as pure as any achieved by other groups of similar description.

This is one of those recordings for quiet contemplative moments, those times when the need to just clear the mind and be refreshed occur. Not a terribly unique recital but one of great beauty. Grady Harp, July 05

Average customer rating:

Reiner's famous 1959 recording has plenty of glorious vocalising but is marred by engineering tricks
Wow! The most religious experience you could ever expect.
Good value
very drammatic
Bjoerling at his best

Verdi: Requiem

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Price, Leontyne | Divas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Arturo Toscanini: NBC Symphony Orchestra- Vol.XI
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem [A German Requiem]
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Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos
Vaughan Williams: The Nine Symphonies

ASIN: B00000427K
Release Date: 1995-11-14

Tracks:

Messa da Requiem: Requiem
Messa da Requiem: Dies irae
Messa da Requiem: Tuba mirum
Messa da Requiem: Liber scriptus
Messa da Requiem: Quid sum miser
Messa da Requiem: Rex tremendae majestatis
Messa da Requiem: Recordare
Messa da Requiem: Ingemisco
Messa da Requiem: Confutatis
Messa da Requiem: Lacrimosa
Messa da Requiem: Offertorio
Messa da Requiem: Hostias

Tracks:

Messa da Requiem: Sanctus
Messa da Requiem: Agnus Dei
Messa da Requiem: Lux aeterna
Messa da Requiem: Libera Me
Messa da Requiem: Dies irae
Messa da Requiem: Requiem aeternam
Messa da Requiem: Libera me
Quattro pezzi sacri: I Ave Maria
Quattro pezzi sacri: II Stabat mater
Quattro pezzi sacri: III Laudi alla Vergine Maria
Quattro pezzi sacri: IV Te Deum

Customer Reviews:

Reiner's famous 1959 recording has plenty of glorious vocalising but is marred by engineering tricks.......2007-04-24

Fritz Reiner's 1959 recording of the Verdi Requiem can be summarized: slow tempos, great singing, and really bizarre sound engineering.

At 97 minutes, this is one of the slowest Verdi Requiems on disc. By comparison, the Georg Solti-Leontyne Price CD is 81'32". From the CDs I've heard, only Sergiu Celibidache's 102" performance is slower.

Reiner opens with probably the slowest Introitus-Kyrie ever heard: 12'18" (Solti-Price 8'31"). But as in the Celibidache performance, the slow tempo really works. The solo entrances in the Kyrie are just magnificent. The choral work is awesome.

The other significantly slower movement is the Offertorio: 12'17" (Solti-Price 9'55"). This is even slower than Celidibache! But like the Introitus-Kyrie, the effect is unforgettable. The Offertorio begins with one of the smoothest, silkiest renditions of the cello intro I've ever heard in this movement - you will love it! The solo interplay between these four unique artists turns this movement into a mini-operatic scene that will overwhelm you.

I guess I've already segued into the fine singing. I liked Leontyne Price in the 1977 recording with Solti, but I think she sounds a bit cleaner here. Her downward swoops seem more controlled, and she doesn't get so ugly right before the Libera Me fugue. Also, I noticed she is miked a bit louder than the other soloists.

Rosalind Elias is definitely one of my favorite Verdi Requiem mezzos (along with Waltraud Meier and Agnes Baltsa). Her voice is tailor-made for Verdi, and she has a lot of power.

Price and Elias are gorgeous together in the Recordare, and are wonderfully passionate in the Agnus Dei. Jussi Bjorling really belts out the high B flats in the Ingemisco. But generally he tends slightly more toward the lyrical Gedda-Araiza sound rather than the all-out theatrics of Luchetti or Cosutta.

Giorgio Tozzi has a little bit of "Robert Merrill" in his sound; the resonance really makes for an effective Confutatis. And Tozzi practically turns Lux Aeterna into a bass aria with accompaniment.

The Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde chorus is quite good, but they are often hampered by the way they were recorded. But this gets into my third point: the sound engineering.

When I first heard the thunderous Dies Irae, I was so impressed that I was certain this was going to be one of the best engineered Verdi Requiems ever. But the longer I listened, the more it sounded like a manufactured sound.

I believe the "great" sound of the Dies Irae is actually some kind of artificial reverberation effect that may have been applied to the master. In the solo moments, you don't hear anywhere near the amount of reverb you hear in the bass drum and the big choral moments.

The reverb makes for some spectacular brass choir effects. But unfortunately, it spoils some of the choral work. In the Sanctus fugue, the individual lines in the chorus seem unusually muddy and indistinct. The Libera Me fugue fares a bit better, but it is still hurt by uneven balance (the tenors are sometimes totally lost).

Then there is the totally bizarre phenomenon in the "Requiem Aeternam" portion of Libera Me (CD 2, Track 6). At 1'56" into the track, you will hear a drop in pitch among solo and orchestra that is microscopic but still noticeable. This drop in pitch continues on. At 2'47" you will hear what seems to be a serious intonation problem; but I'm guessing it's another pitch fluctuation in the recording. But the most blatant change, unfortunately, is the soprano's climactic high B-flat (3'29"). When she does the low B-flat, you will hear the recording pitch upwards; you can't miss it. The high B flat that follows it is a perfect octave above the elevated note.

The filler is a terrific 1970 recording of Verdi's Quattro Pezzi Sacri featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. The Los Angeles Master Chorale (with Yvonne Minton in the cameo) is simply magnificent. The Te Deum alone will leave you breathless. The sound - unlike the Requiem - comes across as much more authentic. This wonderful recording will be sitting next to my other favorite Quattro Pezzi by the Monteverdi Choir and John Eliot Gardiner.

I'm still recommending this CD because the performance overall is so good. And there are lots of parts where the engineered sound is quite spectacular. You also get the added bonuses of a beautiful Quattro Pezzi Sacri and a budget price. This is a valuable addition to any collection.

Texts and translations included.

Wow! The most religious experience you could ever expect........2006-08-14

Leontyne Price is a gift from the heavens. I agree with the former Washington Post reviewer, Paul Hume: "She has no equals. Few come close." Both Ms. Price and Reiner triumph in what has to be the most remarkable reading of the Requiem. The emotionality and intelligence of their combined performances is so spellbinding and gratifying, that I am left breathless by the finish line. Bjorling, Elias and Tozzi are also at the top of their form. It is a shame that wherever they recorded it, they could not get a more immediate sound. It seems as if it is all coming to us from just a little too far off.
From the very beginning, we are on a journey that exhausts us in its intensity. How I wish I could have heard Ms. Price live. If by chance she should read this, I cannot express enough in words what I feel about her.
Even if you favor other recordings of this work, this one comes inexpensively, so add it to your library and give it at least three listens. I believe you will be converted.

Good value.......2006-01-28

I admit I bought this in haste at a bookstore when I had an urge to buy a new CD. I had already heard the 'Te Deum' from Verdi's four sacred pieces. The version I heard was Robert Shaw's 1990 recording with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Although this CD offers a decent recording, I can't say that it beats Shaw's. Shaw really has a nice flow to his interpretation and the vocal quality from the chorus seemed superior to this one. Nevertheless, there were a few small snippets of phrase interpretations that I preferred on this recording to Shaw's.

The requiem is a grand work. I like how Reiner treats the opening movements. The apocalypse is impressive with earth shattering blasts from the timpani, quick firing bursts of trumpets and passages that fly at break neck speeds in the string sections.

After reading the reviews online however, I think I would probably have preferred Solti's interpretation to Reiner's. So all in all, not a bad recording, especially when you consider the price. But if you want to find a truly special recording, learn from my mistake - don't buy in haste, do the research first. Enjoy!

very drammatic.......2005-11-20

This recording is one of the bests of all Verdi - Requiem. Recorded in 1959, but sound quality is very good and stereo. Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of Fritz Reiner, played that tragic requiem with sensitiveness, very impressive. And the Choir, Wiener Musikfreunde is great, amazing performance.

I like especially:

The first movement: Kyrie is a lament, highly pathetic introduction. The 2nd mov: Dies irae (The Day of Judgement) is may be the most terrible of all Dies irae musics. When you listen that movement, you can feel as you are in hell, face to face with Devil! There is a beautiful and very famous mov: Ingemisco, for tenor solo. This is a heavenly and hopeful music. But then, inescapable reality of death comes again with Confutatis, with bass solo and the terrific reprise of Dies irae! And then, the most drammatic mov: Lacrimosa.

There is another Verdi masterpiece: Quattro pezzi sacri (Four Sacred Pieces) for a large orchestra and chorus. Especially the Te Deum is very majestic and worthy listening. The performances of Zubin Mehta and his Los Angeles Philharmonic Orc. and Chorus is very good, their sonorities are very powerful.

It has librettos of all works, too.
Highly recommended.

Bjoerling at his best.......2002-07-02

I don't know what people are talking about when they say Jussi Bjoerling was past his best in this recording. It seems that because it was his last completed commercial recording people think that he must have been old and past his prime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this recording proves it.

This was recorded when he was 49-admittedly the voice was darker than in some of his earlier recordings, but this should not be regarded as inferior. Indeed it was beginning to open up new repertoire for him, sadly cut short by his premature death. This ingemisco is truly wonderful. Passionate yet measured, with ringing high notes, yet full evenness of tone. I don't believe any tenor could better this.

As for the others, it would be entirely remiss of me not to mention Leontyne Price as being absolutely wonderful here too. Her voice is so rich and powerful and she does everything perfectly.

The other soloists are good. Tozzi puts in an assured performance and I doubt there are many basses with such a fine, rounded tone. Rosalind Elias would perhaps be regarded as the weak link, but this merely serves to show the immensely high calibre of the tenor and soprano in particular.

I recognise the problems of the conducting pointed out by other reviewers. I would say that if you listen to the singing you can easily put this minor detail aside, and it is minor, as the brilliant singing of the soloists far outshines anything any conductor could ever do.

Verdi - Requiem · Quattro pezzi sacri / Orgonasova · von Otter · Canonici . A. Miles · Gardiner
Average customer rating:

Superb Requiem performance, Quattro Pezzi Sacri unforgettable

A balanced view, please

Magnificant

Gardiner or Shaw: A difficult choice

Maybe 'Classical' but Revelatory - and Orgonasova is supreme

Verdi - Requiem · Quattro pezzi sacri / Orgonasova · von Otter · Canonici . A. Miles · Gardiner
Giuseppe Verdi , John Eliot Gardiner , Luba Orgonasova , Anne Sofie von Otter , Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique , Monteverdi Choir , Luca Canonici , and Alastair Miles
Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem Op.45

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Beethoven - Missa Solemnis / Margiono * Robbin * Kendall * Miles * EBS * Gardiner

ASIN: B00000418W
Release Date: 1995-04-11

Tracks:

Messa da requiem: 1. Requiem - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Dies irae - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Tuba mirum - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Liber scriptus - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Quid sum miser - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Rex tremendae - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Recordare - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Ingemisco - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Confutatis - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 2. Dies irae - Lacrymosa - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 3. Offertorio - G. Verdi
Messa da requiem: 4. Sanctus - G. Verdi

Tracks:

Messa da requiem: 5. Agnus Dei - Verdi
Messa da requiem: 6. Lux aeterna - Verdi
Messa da requiem: 7. Libera me - Verdi
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Ave Maria - Verdi
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Stabat Mater - Verdi
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Laudi alla Vergine Maria - Verdi
Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Te Deum - Verdi

Amazon.com

This religious masterpiece, composed in memory of the great Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), has themes even more cosmic than any in Verdi's other operas: life and death, heaven and hell, the Christian vision of humanity's redemption, the end of the world, and the last judgment. Verdi's music rises to the tremendous demands of this subject matter; it is music of grandeur, guilt, terror, and consolation, with a breadth of vision and an intensity of feeling unique in the composer's work and in religious music. John Eliot Gardiner's is the first recording made with period instruments, a kind of performance that some musiclovers still dismiss as dilettantism, more concerned with musicological correctness than feeling and communication. Gardiner's powerful performance blows such objections away, and this recording takes a rightful place alongside the best modern instrument versions. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

Superb Requiem performance, Quattro Pezzi Sacri unforgettable.......2007-04-15

This is one fantastic recording of the Verdi Requiem. As previous reviewers have mentioned, the Monteverdi Choir (69 members strong) produces a powerful sound that easily holds its own against the bigger choirs. The Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique uses period instruments, but you won't hear the tinny sound, vibrato-less strings, or the over-miked percussion of typical period instrument CDs. This orchestra sounds every bit as good as the "modern" orchestras that have recorded the Verdi Requiem. And they have a GREAT bass drum!

The soloists are not the blood & guts Verdians that many listeners associate with this piece. The liner notes by John Eliot Gardiner include a reference to Verdi's letter to Ricordi in which he adamantly cautions against singing this work like an opera. It is not surprising, then, that a scholarly conductor like Gardiner would choose soloists that would match Verdi's own desires.

Luba Orgonasova (born in Bratislava, Slovakia) is a lyric soprano much in demand in Europe. She was personally invited by Karajan to co-star in 1990 Salzburg Festival's Fidelio (the production was conducted by Kurt Masur following Karajan's death). In Verdi's Requiem, she provides a sound that shimmers like glass. Her high B-flat in Libera Me is almost vibrato-less, creating a pure crystalline sound.

Anne Sofie von Otter (1955 - , Stockholm, Sweden) is well-known among American and European audiences alike. In addition to her many trouser stage roles, she has extensive recordings of oratorio literature. Her Verdi Requiem is totally without theatrics. The music is all you get - and that's good enough for me.

Luca Canonici (1961 - , Tuscany, Italy) is a lyric tenor not very well-known outside of Europe. His recordings include Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, Bellini's La Sonnambula , Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino, and Verdi's Falstaff (Solti). His Requiem is also devoid of theatrics, much like Gedda's (Giulini) and Araiza's (Hanns-Martin Schneidt). His Ingemisco did not please me at first, but I gradually grew to enjoy it with additional hearings.

Alastair Miles (1961 - , UK), bass, is a superstar in England. He made his Metropolitan debut in 1996. He has a beautifully resonant sound that reminds me of Simon Estes (Hanns-Martin Schneidt). Okay, he's not Ghiaurov (Karajan, Giulini) or van Dam (Karajan), but I really enjoyed how he sang this Requiem.

The Monteverdi Choir gives a totally stunning performance of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri. The fine work of the orchestra adds to the sonic grandeur of the singers. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite recordings of this work.

I was highly pleased with the recorded sound; it is one of the main reasons why I love this album. Liner notes include texts and translations, names of all orchestra and choir performers, artist photos, and essays by Julian Budden and Gardiner. This album was recorded Dec 1992 in London.

While I highly recommend this album, I realize its high price may deter some. But try to get it if you can.

A balanced view, please.......2006-09-27

So far at Amazon every reviewer seems to echo the same opinion, that Gardiner's is a revelatory performance, the best ever, incomparable on every score. I don't think such overkill helps a recording, however. There have been monumental accounts of the Messa da Requiem from Toscanini, De Sabata, Serafin, Giulini, Fricsay, and Reiner, with soloists the likes of Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Jussi Bjorling, Pavarotti, Leontyne Price, and so on. In the light of so much glorious history, it's quite a feat to make a highly successful new recording of this great work.

Gardiner has certainly done that. He leads a propulsive, exciting reading, and trimming down his orchestra and chorus adds much-needed clarity and impact. It's rare to get a professional chorus on the order of the Monteverdi Choir, and they sing perfectly in tune throughout, with wide dynamic contrasts. But Gardiner's soloists aren't the absolute best I've ever heard. Tenor Luca Canonici is nowhere near the level of Bjorling, Pavarotti, and Domingo in this work, appealing as he is; the Ingemisco runs out of steam after the first few lines. Von Otter is exceptional, of course, and Alistair Miles acqits himself well. The major solo part belongs to the soprano in the Libera Me, and Luba Organosova has a good, if fairly light voice, free of Slavic wobble and edge. She sings with intense passion and has good vocal control. Is she the equal of Leontyne Price? If she were, she'd be a headliner in every opera house in the world. Expect a good-to-very good job form her, as form the others.

Finally, the only real deficit is the sound, which is edgy and harsh in loud climaxes and shows evidence of microphone shatter. Also, Gardiner's rough, punchy style in the fastest passages, like the Dies Irae, may not be to everyone's taste. Otherwise, this is one of his best recordings outside the Baroque repertoire.

Magnificant.......2003-10-07

This is absolutely glorious music. The Requiem Mass of Verdi has long been a favorite for both listeners and vocalists and is now acquiring a semi-popular following. The only limitation to even more public performances is the extraordinary length. What is even more remarkable about this deeply moving piece is that Verdi himself was not a religious man though being Italian the Church must have made a deep impact on his psyche.

The synthesis of the orchestra and chorus is near perfect and the tempi are just right. Many times one hears parts of the Mass taken at near neck-break speed and other parts at a near standstill. The depths of the emotional range is astounding - from the thundersou blasts of the Dies Irae to the mournful, languid, rapturous Lacrymosa to the piercing sopranas and warm altos - it is the kind of music that comes along rarely.

The sound is sterling, the acoustics just as clear. I liked the informative accompanying pamphlet with the original (Latin) words along with a translation as opposed to a transliteration. Add this to your collection.

Gardiner or Shaw: A difficult choice.......2002-08-08

Verdi's mass for the dead is one of my favorite pieces in the western canon, so I've collected a few over the years. You can read the other reviews for poetic waxing on the themes and scope of this work, but I will concern this review with the musical and performance merits of two specific recordings: the best period performance (Gardiner's, albeit the only one) and arguably the best modern performance (recorded by the regrettably late Robert Shaw, and there are some other moderns in close contention).

I won't make you read the entire review to get my take: I prefer the Gardiner/ORR recording to the Shaw/ASO for the simple reason that there is more fire, drive, dynamic, or other related adjective involved in this performance than any other.

Gardiner's players are absolutely deadly - you need look no further than tracks two and three for evidence of that! The tempi, while quite brisk, do not daunt this remarkable ensemble, and they play with an astounding precision. 50 percent of that credit is due, however, to Gardiner's outstanding conducting (most/all of his recordings with just about any group are staggeringly precise - check out The Planets with the Philharmonia!).

The choir, being the Monteverdi Choir, sings an incredible performance, but using far more vibrato than is normally heard from them - consistent with the style of the work. Their technique and facility equal that of the orchestra: a combination that is difficult to beat.

The tempi, taken as literally from the score as possible, are faster than we normally hear (by lesser ensembles) so, some listeners may feel that the music is not given enough time to breathe, or that it is too fast to comprehend. Enter Dr. Shaw...

Robert Shaw's outstanding account of this requiem has an incredible asset: phrasing unparalleled in any other recording. Under the guidance of the best choral conductor of his time, the Atlanta Symphony Chorus responds to their director's brilliant musicality with aplomb. His superb vocal phrasing transfers well to the strings too. Every phrase has a top and bottom, and he exposes many textures that other conductors do not.

But, Shaw's larger, less agile, and more-distantly miked ensemble do not capture the immediacy that Gardiner's does. Compounded with a slower performance, Shaw's - while breathtakingly beautiful - does not have Gardiner's impact.

So here's my recommendation: purchase Gardiner for the recording quality, tempo, orchestra, perferable choir, and effect. Purchase Shaw for the contemplative setting, outstanding choral phrasing/conducting, and superior soloists. Really, purchase both when you can.

But to feel the true power and effect of Verdi's opera for church, Gardiner's is the one to get.

Maybe 'Classical' but Revelatory - and Orgonasova is supreme.......2001-11-16

This recording has been the subject of equally passionate praise and denouncement. Some critics threw about words like 'classical' and 'unidiomatic'. They were not entirely unjustified, but after acquiring this recording of one of my favourite pieces of music, I no longer care. This is revelatory.

No other recording has such detail, such clarity, such remarkable presence. Phillips should be congratulated. Few other performances have no weak links. All the soloists are excellent, the choir & orchestra superb.

In particular, I cannot find enough superlatives for Luba Orgonasova. It is an endless mystery to me why this soprano is so scarce in the catalogue. In this role, at least, she reigns supreme. Schwarzkopf; Studer; Stader; Sutherland; Scotto - all the "S" sopranos seem to have sung this! - Price; Gheorghiu; Caballe; Freni, the list goes on, NONE of these excel Orgonasova in this part. Verdi made incredible demands on his soprano soloist and the far lesser-known Orgonasova meets those demands better than any in this illustrious company.

The key to her success is that she has a strong chest voice which is properly integrated tonally with her head voice. To understand what I mean, just listen to that crucial part in the Libera Me (Requiem Aeternam), where she floats a high B which is truly pianissimo, followed by the ferocious recapitulation of the Libera Me culminating in the word "terra", which so many sopranos either under-power, or resort to a distortion of tone. Not Orgonasova. This is one phenomenal instrument.

The other aspect of this recording where its quality has the edge over all the competition is in the remarkable integration of Orgonasova and Von Otter's voices in the Recordare & Agnus Dei. No other recording I have heard blends the two parts so perfectly - almost like one singer who can sing in harmony with herself!

For buyers who can afford a few recordings, this may be an excellent complement to a more operatic recording (I would recommend the intermittently-available live 1960 Fricsay - don't confuse with his studio recording) and/or the great Giulini with Schwarzkopf; Ludwig; Gedda; & Ghiaurov, now at mid-price on EMI Great Recordings of the Century. The present recording is full price over two discs; which may deter the budget conscious, but it is well worth it for anyone who cares to know this music intimately, to have its mastery revealed afresh.

Arturo Toscanini: NBC Symphony Orchestra- Vol.XI
Average customer rating:

A Singer's Verdi

A remastering to rejoice over

Despite the sound, impressive!!

New sound is a major improvement

At long last, Toscanini's recordings are somewhat listenable

Arturo Toscanini: NBC Symphony Orchestra- Vol.XI
Cesare Siepi , Giuseppe di Stefano , NBC Symphony Orchestra , Robert Shaw Chorale , Giuseppe Verdi , Luigi Cherubini , and Herva Nelli
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Toscanini Conducts Verdi: Two Sacred Works: Requiem Mass & Te Deum

Arturo Toscanini: The Complete Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings 1941-42

ASIN: B00004R8MF
Release Date: 2000-04-04

Tracks:

I. Requiem & Kyrie
II. Dies Irae: Dies Irae
II. Dies Irae: Tuba Mirum
II. Dies Irae: Mors Stupebit
II. Dies Irae: Liber Scriptus
II. Dies Irae: Quid Sum Miser
II. Dies Irae: Rex Tremendae
II. Dies Irae: Recordare
II. Dies Irae: Ingemisco
II. Dies Irae: Confutatis
II. Dies Irae: Lacrymosa
III. Offertorio: Domine Jesu Christe
III. Offertorio: Hostias
IV. Sanctus
V. Agnus Die
VI. Lux Aeterna
VII. Libera Me: Libera Me, Domine
VII. Libera Me: Dies Irae
VII. Libera Me: Libera Me, Domine

Tracks:

Four Sacred Pieces, No.4: Te Deum
I. Introitus Et Kyrie
II. Graduale
III. Dies Irae
IV. Offertorium
V. Sanctus
VI. Pie Jesu
VII. Agnus Dei

Customer Reviews:

A Singer's Verdi.......2006-02-09

Although Verdi really challenges singers in so much of his music, there's no question that he wrote well for the voice. This is quite apparent in Toscanini's January 1951 broadcast concert of Verdi's "Requiem." Having performed this music, this writer can attest that this is a recording to treasure. The soloists are outstanding (probably singing their best), the chorus is excellent, and the NBC Symphony plays as well as it ever did. The added excitement is in hearing a live performance, without any retakes, and the incredible drama and emotion of the music in Toscanini's hands.

Yes, Toscanini actually yells during the "Tuba mirum," as the brass blares its terrifying call, just before the chorus enters fortissimo. Was Toscanini urging on his performers? Certainly this is overwhelming music. My former choral director told us that Verdi wrote with a sense of fear as the approaching Day of Judgment, even if the composer notoriously despised organized religion. Did Verdi fear God's anger and judgment? He certainly had a healthy respect for divine providence and this performance displays that.

Some listeners complain that this is just another Verdi opera. It's true that it sounds a lot like "Aida," which was composed within a few years of this work. However, Verdi used the musical language he understood; there is a definite sense of drama throughout the music, even as he treats the traditional Latin text with great respect and even awe.

The performance took place on the 50th anniversary of Verdi's death, a date that Toscanini would long remember because of his close relationship with the composer. Toscanini was asked to lead the musical forces at Verdi's funeral in January 1901. By 1951, when this Carnegie Hall performance took place, Toscanini must have wondered how much time remained for him. He was to have some serious health problems during that year and his long-suffering wife, Carla, would finally pass on. Certainly, as the years had passed, the Requiem took on greater significance as a lasting memorial, not only for Verdi's friend Manzoni but for Verdi's own prestigious career.

The recurring setting of the "Dies Irae," the Day of Wrath or Day of Judgment, with its pounding bass drum characterizes this powerful music. The choral singing is particularly difficult at those times and the singers here are outstanding. The very challenging double chorus singing during the "Sanctus" is especially good with its lightning-speed precision. Yet there are also sensitive, even sweet, moments, culminating with the soprano's more hopeful singing during the "Lux aeterna" or "Eternal Light," leading finally to the "Libera me," in which the chorus joins in hushed tones. Herva Nelli seldom sang as well as she did in those closing moments. The music always has left this listener with a sense of peace, probably as Verdi intended.

This 1951 recording may have been surprassed by the later stereophonic recordings (especially by Sir Georg Solti), in which Verdi's spectacular use of brass and percussion are absolutely amazing, but this is a performance that is closer to Verdi's own intentions.

Near the very end of Toscanini's long career, he conducted Verdi's very last work, a setting of the traditional hymn "Te Deum." This took place on March 14, 1954, in an NBC concert which also included one of Vivaldi's concerto grossos and the prologue to Boito's "Mefistofele." It has long been said that this was the last great concert that the Maestro conducted because of his overwhelming emotions over his impending retirement and the abandonment of the NBC Symphony. Indeed, the two concerts that followed this one were not up to Toscanini's usual standards, which is particularly unfortunate because they were the only time that Toscanini and his orchestra were taped in stereo.

The Robert Shaw Chorale, which had sung so well in the Verdi "Requiem" three years earlier, shone particularly bright in Verdi's "Te Deum." The singers and the orchestra succeed briliantly during the many mood shifts of the music, as Verdi imaginatively scores the powerful text. What a wonderful, moving, and enjoyable performance!

Toscanini had a particular fondness for the music of the early Italian romantic composer Luigi Cherubini and this is quite apparent in his performances both of the "Requiem" and Cherubini's only symphony. The performance is from NBC Studio 8-H with exceptionally good sound.

A remastering to rejoice over.......2005-12-12

I've heard before-and-after examples of BMG's amazing remastering job on the old Toscanini archive, and this Verdi Requiem is one of the very best. Despite the original microphone placement, which puts the chorus a bit too far back and the inner woodwinds too close, those are quibbles compared to the vibrant solo voices and the sudden expansion of space compared to the pinched acoustic we've winced over for fifty years.

This is a work that Toscanini has only himself to compete with. He didn't take a revernet approach to the Requiem--the whole cast of Aida has taken a wrong turn and wound up in church. Much of the time the soloists are clearly competing, and why not? Siepi, Di Stefano, and Barbieri in full voice are magnificent. Herva Nelli had no significant career on records aside from those with Toscanini, but she comes across here as a secure, committed dramatic soprano.

That Toscanini's reading fits on one disc testifies to its fiery tempos and untethered drama. The Robert Shaw chorale wouldn't be bettered until professional choruses became the norm in following decades; too bad they are the least audible aspect of the recording. I think this Verdi Requiem must be judged a first-choice, along with the Debussy La Mer, among the newly remastered "Immortal" series that I've encountered so far.

Despite the sound, impressive!!.......2004-05-19

A friend of mine listened to this CD and said: "Puff, it is hard to make a deconvolution between the trumpets and the rest of the orchestra"... That is, soloists are perfectly catched, but trumpets in Tuba Mirum fill everything and you cannot hear the chorus just in the beginning. Violins are hardly audible in some parts but, on the whole, it is a very, very great performance. First, you can make a comparative with famous Giulini's Requiem, stereo sound, and it is incredible to see that his Kyrie is slower than Tosca's, losing all the strength and frenzy environment that Tosca achieves. But, Giulini's goes revved up in Dies Irae, much more that Tosca's, and again loses enchantment. Tuba Mirum is much more the same tempo for both. Briefly, Tosca yields a more uniform performance than Giulini and that is why this performance catches you up with emotion and strength. It is sublime, pity for the mono and loudness of the trumpets. Regarding the soloists, Di Stefano is simply gorgeous. His top register is brilliant here, and his phrasing seductive as ever. But when you go to Hostias, it is "perfection". I have listened to it 20 times or more, incredible his singing there. In Giulini's, Pavarotti is sensational too, but Di Stefano is capable to touch the Heaven itself. The bass, Siepi, is attractive in all his register with his widened rich voice. Herva Nelli sounds like Callas, yes, in certain low tones, and, for the mezzo, Barbieri, compare to the Giulini's one in Kyrie. She is more "menacing and loose" when singing "Christe", ...

In summary, a great performance, that maybe, is the Reference.

New sound is a major improvement.......2001-06-21

I bought the 1990 remastering of the Verdi "Requiem" but after one or two times, I did not listen to it very often, since the sound was compressed and the loudest passages were badly distorted. This new remastering is a significant improvement over the older one, and allows the listener to really enjoy the performance, unhindered by sonic annoyances. The performance was a live radio broadcast, with all of the intensity and power that the best such performances can have. Highly recommended as the definitive "historical" performance of the Verdi "Requiem".

At long last, Toscanini's recordings are somewhat listenable.......2000-07-10

I have enjoyed Toscanini's performances of classical music since I was a teenager, now almost 35 years ago, but I was never very happy about the thin, shrill sound of his recordings. Why did they sound so bad? It took me years to discover that, unlike Stokowski or Koussevitzky, Toscanini had no interest in the technical side of making records. As long as he could hear all the orchestral "voices," he was content, if not entirely happy. This left the technical end of the business up to various producers and engineers at RCA, many of whom had their own crackpot ideas about how to position microphones. (Please remember, the early RCA Opera Series LPs sounded just as thin, shrill and dry as Toscanini's recordings; remember the Reiner "Carmen," or the Cellini recordings of "Rigoletto" and "Il Trovatore.") What this did was compress the tremendous crescendos that Toscanini achieved, turning them into crunching sounds that simply overwhelmed the microphones. And then, when these tapes were processed into LP discs, they compressed the sound even more, with the result that Toscanini sounded as if he were conducting a military band in your bathroom instead of a real, live symphony orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

With the advent of 20-bit remastering, however, and the dedication of real music-lovers intent on restoring (as much as possible) the sound of the original tapes, RCA has issued a mere 24 CDs of the Toscanini legacy in this new format (in 12 2-CD sets). Luckily, the series includes his Beethoven symphonies, which were landmarks of the time, as well as Italian orchestral music that meant a lot to him (see listings). And it also includes these 1950-54 performances of the Cherubini Requiem, as well as the Verdi Requiem and Te Deum.

Words cannot describe how wonderful this Verdi Requiem sounds, especially in comparison to the original LPs (may they rest in pieces). Only in two or three places do the massed sound of choirs, brass, strings and percussion have the "nasty" crunching sound as in the past. Otherwise, even in the "Libera me," the percussion and brass sounds wonderfully natural. And, finally, one can hear the natural Carnegie Hall ambience around the voices of the soloists, Herva Nelli, Fedora Barbieri, Giuseppe DiStefano and Cesare Siepi, who are all in fabulous voice.

As for the performance: I have been told by many Toscanini experts that his 1940 performance with Milanov and Jussi Bjorling far surpasses this one, but I once owned that recording and don't you believe it. Granted, the "Ingemisco" and "Offertorio" are swifter and tauter here than in the 1940 recording, but they sound wonderful in context. Indeed, I found myself both emotionally moved and intellectually satisfied by this Requiem as I have been by no other...not even the great Giulini and Karajan recordings. For the first time EVER, I perceived an underlying structure in the work, rather than just hearing it as a sort of suite of interesting but disconnected fragments. I also heard orchestral details that passd unnoticed in even the best digital stereo versions, i.e. sinister oboes and bassoons in the earlier sections, pizzicato strings in the "Libera me." Please, please believe me, this is a MIRACULOUS performance.

Tracks:

I. Ave Maria
II. Stabat Mater
III. Laudi Alla Vergine Maria
IV. Te Deum
Part I
Part II
Part III

Amazon.com

Robert Shaw was a splendid choral conductor--indeed, possibly the greatest of the 20th century (in America at least). When confronted with works for chorus and orchestra, however, he could be either very exciting or very dull. Like so many great choral trainers, his concern with problems of balance, intonation, and pronunciation in the chorus parts often led to a neglect of the orchestra, and an inability to "let go" when the music demanded it. Fortunately, this particular collection shows Shaw at his best. Like his superb recording of the Verdi Requiem, the Four Sacred Pieces really come alive in his hands--with the "Te Deum" particularly grand. Similarly, his Symphony of Psalms balances the objectivity of the composer's vocal and instrumental writing with an unaccustomed warmth and grace. Add to this Telarc's excellent sonics, and the results are very fine indeed. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Oil & Vinegar.......2002-01-31

Despite being superbly executed, this disc is a little bit strange. The pairing of Verdi and Stravinsky is as improbable as a fish needing a bicycle. However, aside from my programming reservations, this is another fine example of what Robert Shaw can do when he gets in front of a chorus. Verdi's hushed, a cappella Ave Maria seems atypical of Verdi's buoyant, expressive style - it is reverent but almost inelastic. The Stabat Mater rings out with a glorious grandeur only Verdi could produce. The Laudi is a beautiful yet simple piece with clear and beautiful lines for the Sopranos. It is so gentle it would not be out of place in the Abbey from the Sound of Music. The Te Deum is worth the 20 minute wait just to hear it explode from your speakers. The Symphony of Psalms is delicate, beautiful, powerful and full of Stravinsky's free-range woodwinds. I love his music, but I must argue that the Symphony of Psalms would have been better paired with any number of the other great sacred pieces of Stravinsky. This is my only complaint, that there is a disconcerting gear-shift moving from the grandiose Verdi to the sparse Stravinsky. However, if you enjoy both composers, you will not be disappointed with Shaw and his forces on this recording.

The concert of a lifetime!.......2000-11-17

I have heard this CD and let me tell you it brings me excitement and a glorius feeling every time I hear it! I sang all these pieces in high school and all these songs were just rewarding to sing and hear! The Atlanta Symphony Chorus and its sister the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra combine again to make a unique blend like no other two ensembles I ever heard together. I definately gave this CD the perfect 5 stars. From the haunting beauty of Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" to the well-written, glorious sounds of Giuseppe Verdi's "Quattro Pezzi Sacri", this is a CD that will bring you joy and pleasure.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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