Verdi: Requiem & Operatic Choruses
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Robert Shaw learned from Arturo Toscanini, and in his stupendous 1987 recording for Telarc he managed to surpass the master on some points. He is unerring in his pacing and staging of climaxes, and draws phrasing and dynamics from the chorus that other conductors can only dream of. Points are made with exhilarating effect throughout the account: never has the bass drum in the Dies irae been as splendidly hammered as here, and the whooping brass in the Tuba mirum is breathtaking. The all-American solo quartet sounds a bit driven, especially the light-voiced Susan Dunn and Jerry Hadley, but their contribution is a strong one nonetheless. --Ted Libbey
Customer Reviews
Sublime recording!
This is a fantastic disc, a sublime and beautiful recording, which is just what I was looking for for my wife. It was hard to decide which recording to buy, but Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony usually do a good gig. Soloists are excellent, chorus strong and not warbly, good tempi, good dynamic range, not too fast. Overall, perfect for our requirements!
Worth the money
I have no dissappointments. It is clear that the featured artists have surprising talent. There was more than one 'Wow!' in this receording.
THE 'faultless' REQUIEM?
I purchased this PG Rosette recording with high hopes, only to discover that the hype was (and is still) unjustified. Of the four soloists, only Curry and the late Hadley are entirely satisfactory, though regrettably the latter isn't as closely miked as his colleagues (but this is perhaps due to his lightweight timbre). Plishka's bass is dry, his 'Hostias' trill being quite memorably wobbly. Dunn isn't uplifting (ie too straight-faced) in 'Libera me': in addition to a shrieked-out B flat, her intonation is rather unreliable - is it possible that nobody has ever noticed her 'aetArnam' and repeated 'LibeRRa'? (I suggest that all 5-star reviewers clean their ears, or put on their headphones: on first hearing this, I wondered if the soprano is imploring God to deliver her from eternal death - 'libera me' - or asking for a drink/to be drunk - 'liberra me'.) The openings of 'Dies irae' are tame throughout (far from being hair-raising), and Shaw's tempi in 'Libera me' are erratic. DON CARLO being my favourite Verdi opera, its chorus isn't only bell-less but also mercilessly butchered (no point in recording it at all). Telarc's parsimonious tracking for the REQUIEM isn't as annoying as the performance itself, which I thought was blemishless. I might have enjoyed this recording if it were my first REQUIEM, but I got it in order to discover what the fuss is all about long after hearing the likes of Price (Ormandy, Reiner, Karajan and Solti), Milanov and Nelli (Toscanini), Tebaldi (Toscanini and de Sabata), Rysanek, Freni and Tomowa-Sintow (Karajan), Caniglia and Vartenissian (Serafin), Schwarzkopf (de Sabata and Giulini), Ligabue, Shuard and Sweet (Giulini), Arroyo (Bernstein), Sutherland (Solti), Ricciarelli, Studer and Gheorghiu (Abbado), Scotto and Studer (Muti), Orgonasova (Gardiner), and other soloists of both sexes on CD and DVD: no comparison.
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