Verdi: Messa da Requiem /Quattro Pezzi Sacri

Verdi's Mass

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by this piece. It's the first time I've heard it so I'm not sure whether it's the recording or the music itself, but it goes from being almost inaudible in places, to practically blasting you out of your chair, with little moderation in between. Some of the choral parts are certainly beautiful, and the four sacred pieces that follow the Mass on the CD are enjoyable too, with some lovely harmony. I guess I just had higher expectations based on Verdi's operas, and on other Masses and Requiems that I love (Mozart for example) so I wasn't as pleased with Verdi's Mass as I'd thought I might be. July 26, 2007

Schwarzkopf sings Verdi

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. April 4, 2007

TREMENDAE MAJESTATIS

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. September 12, 2005

Great Performance, TERRIBLE SOUND buyers beware !!!

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. May 24, 2005

An amazing achievement

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. June 21, 2004

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