Verdi: Requiem; Quattro pezzi sacri

Verdi: Requiem; Quattro pezzi sacri

Verdi: Requiem; Quattro pezzi sacri
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Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Georg Solti
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Performer: Martti Talvela
Performer: Marilyn Horne
Performer: Vienna State Opera Chorus
Performer: Joan Sutherland
Performer: Luciano Pavarotti
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2006-10-10
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Requiem Aeternam & Kyrie
  2. Dies Irae
  3. Tuba Mirum
  4. Liber Scriptus
  5. Quid Sum Miser
  6. Rex Tremendae
  7. Recordare
  8. Ingemisco
  9. Confutatis
  10. Lacrimosa
Music CD 2
  1. Domine Jesu Christe
  2. Hostias
  3. IV. Sanctus
  4. V. Agnus Dei
  5. VI. Lux Aeterna
  6. Libera Me
  7. Dies Irae
  8. Requiem Aeternam
  9. Libera Me
  10. I. Ave Maria - Chicago Symphony Chorus
  11. II. Stabat Mater - Chicago Symphony Chorus
  12. III. Laudi Alla Vergine Maria - Chicago Symphony Chorus
  13. IV. Te Deum - Chicago Symphony Chorus

Free Music Notes for Verdi: Requiem; Quattro pezzi sacri

Free Music Review: One of two definitive Verdi Requiems
Hit: 5 Stars

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.

Verdi: Requiem; Quattro pezzi sacri Poster

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