Verdi: Messa da Requiem [Hybrid SACD]

Verdi: Messa da Requiem [Hybrid SACD]

Verdi: Messa da Requiem [Hybrid SACD]
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CD Details

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Performer: Bernarda Fink
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Performer: Eva Mei
Performer: Michael Schade
Edition: Music CD
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
CD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
  1. Requiem; No. 1 Requiem (e Kyrie); Requiem aeternam
  2. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Dies irae
  3. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Tuba mirum
  4. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Liber scriptus
  5. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Quid sum miser
  6. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Rex tremendae
  7. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Recordare
  8. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Ingemisco tamquam
  9. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Confutatis maledictis
  10. Requiem; No. 2 Dies irae; Lacrimosa
  11. Requiem; No. 3 Offertorio; Domine Jesu
  12. Requiem; No. 3 Offertorio; Hostias
  13. Requiem; No. 4 Sanctus; Sanctus
  14. Requiem; No. 5 Agnus Dei; Agnus Dei
  15. Requiem; No. 6 Lux aeterna; Lux Aeterna
  16. Requiem; No. 7 Libera me; Libera me
  17. Requiem; No. 7 Libera me; Dies irae
  18. Requiem; No. 7 Libera me; Libera me

Music reviews of Verdi: Messa da Requiem [Hybrid SACD]

Music Review: Just okay, not a fav shelf keeper - Pale in comparison to Ormandy
Rating: 3 Stars

Having listened to this sacd version of the Verdi Requiem for a while, I finally decided it was not a keeper. So I guess I hear and weigh things differently from some of the other posting reviewers. I took trade credit when this set wore through for me.

Let's start with what works well in this set. First off, the sacd sound is an enhancement. If ever classical repertoire could benefit from multi-channel surround sound, we should certainly have the Verdi Requiem on our demo lists. It is not just the vivid brass choirs, sounding the Last Judgment from the four corners of the trembling earth, it is the sheer panoply of the work that more than fills five hifi channels in a home theater system. So far, then, the surround competition only includes two other performances, a newish one by Marcus Bosch and the Aachen Symphony plus cast on Coviello, and a vivid DVD audio of the Gergiev/Kirov performance, flawed by Andrea Bocelli's occasional pop phrasing.

Perhaps the best sacd version of them all so far that I have kept in my fav shelves is (in my opinion) the remastered Ormandy/Philadelphia version on sacd-only stereo Sony.

Despite its age (1964), and despite having only two channels to present, this recording now achieves something like historic status as an example of how good stereo master tapes from the stereo golden age could be, though we never heard everything before. Thanks to the exemplary stereo engineering, the sound stage of this older master tape is now incredibly accurate, full-range, and present. One hears, not only each and every player/singer, individually, small group sectioned, and massed in very large forces, one also hears the resonance of the venue. None of this detail is forced, artificial, or in any way a detraction from the music. Yes, Ormandy can be faulted, maybe, for being rather direct in his Verdi; but that wears deep and well on repeated hearings, and he is never uninvolved or mauling the phrase with applications of musical ego, strong-armed into Verdi from outside the musical drama. The four soloists would have been rather regarded as very solid, but not especially flashy, Verdi singers in their day. Richard Tucker helped hold down the Verdi wing at the New York Met, and ditto for bass-baritone George London (who also sang great Wagner Wotan's). Canada's blessedly rich and intelligent Maureen Forrester certainly had all that the requiem demands. The USA's Lucine Amara would have been considered just a tad light in voice for the customary heft, and soaring soprano drama of her part.

Not to worry. What no matter how any individual solo voice might have raised minor questions on its own, the four together are simply superb. In retrospect, and rather triumphing in comparison to what is supposed to pass for an archetypal Verdi voice in the Hanoncourt set, these folks are gorgeous. And so in tune with one another as a quartet.

My praise of Ormandy's golden age soloists suggests what I hear missing from Harnoncourt. That is, the soloists. Like Harnoncourt's Verdi Aida, he seems here to be trying to make some renewal point by using lighter voices. Gardiner did something like that in his set without choosing at all badly. But whereas we can count Gardiner's soloists as beautiful and successful, alone and together, I cannot agree for the Harnoncourt foursome. I write this, acknowledging that I cherish Michael Schade in other performances on other recordings. Ditto, for Mei, Fink, and D'Arcangelo. Nor are the somewhat lighter voices used in the Gergiev DVD audio version - except for Bocelli in passing passages, who does well in other passages - lacking.

The other fault, perhaps, in the set is Harnoncourt's leadership and vision. He can take a slow tempo, but it achieves flowing forward movement at the expense of that rock solid understructure in slow tempos that we can hear in the likes of Otto Klemperer, Kurt Sanderling, or even Ormandy. We have no Bruno Walter recording of the Verdi Requiem, but Harnoncourt is no match for the Bruno Walter combination of flexibe phrasing and rock of Gibraltar basic tempo, in any case.

Avoid this set, unless you swoon at the mention of Harnoncourt's name. He does not do all that badly here, except when you stop to listen again to all the other recordings which have done so much better in so many different ways. Gergiev, in multichannel dvd audio, even has something to offer in fire and drama and lyrical lift that Harnoncourt lacks. And for sacd classic-historic, unicorn-fabulous recreation, the remastered stereo sacd Ormandy/Philadelphia will make your ears sizzle while your heart sings and your embodied soul prays. Purchase at your own risk, then, and consider your other options. Three sacd stars - for sound, mainly, and in continuing affection to Vienna.
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