Customer Reviews

Messa Da Requiem/Quattro Pezzi

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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.

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.

The tempi and expression are very traditional (at least when looking at the score), but as I said, the cast are not afraid to live it up. No need to spend more.

A great Italian conductor (Giulini), a great song cast at thier peak (Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Gedda and Ghiaurov), great chorus and quite good sound make this one of the best Verdi requiem recorded.

This is not crystal clear sound that you find at Gardiners DDD version recorded by Philips in 1995 but for a version origin date 63 and 64, remastred at Abbey Road studio, it has very good sound and Giulini has choosen a couple of the best opera singers from that time for this stunning Verdi Requiem/Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

Buy Guilini and Gardiner and compare. Both versions is excellent and they differ in sounds and orchestra.

To take this one as no 1 is not a bad idea if you cant afford Gardiners too. This is a mid price record and it is well used money. You could pay full price and not get a fantastic performance like this in other cases... (newest is not always best). This remastered version is from 2001 and I think remaster process take place in 1997 so dont worry about sound (even if gardiners at Philips has a better sound). Sound is smoothe and Gedda was a fantastic tenor.

This Giulini/EMI version is highly recommended.

The Giulini recording of Verdi's "Requiem" has long been a favorite of many listeners, both for the conducting and the quality of the soloists, most of whom were at the peak of their careers. EMI re-issued it on CD back in 1986, but the sound was always a problem, especially in the loud choral passages, where it distorted and broke up. This new remastering is a huge improvement over the 1986 version. EMI has made excellent use of new noise-reduction technology to give new clarity to this brilliant peformance, and to almost eliminate the distortion in the loudest passages. There is still some audible break-up in a few places (technology cannot totally overcome limitations of the master tapes), but it's a lot less intrusive than on the previous version. Anyone who loved this performance even with the sound problems will find that they can now listen to it without cringing at the loud parts. Anyone who has not yet heard this recording is in for a real treat! As with other issues in its "Great Recordings of the Century" series, EMI has provided very good packaging and notes.