Warner are making a big thing out of re-releasing much of Daniel
Barenboim’s back catalogue as bargain collections - see
the recent issue of his set of the Wagner operas as a good example.
This one showcases great choral works from his team in Chicago,
but it’s a mixed success at best. It’s beautifully
played and recorded, captured in excellent sound and performed
with intensity and sincerity, but in two of these works the
conductor seems to go out of his way to draw attention to the
significance and weight of the music so that it ends up being
crushed beneath its own baggage.
The chief problem is choice of tempo. Right from the opening
notes of the Missa Solemnis it is clear that this
is to be a reading of weight and moment, but the slow tempi
that Barenboim chooses for most of the time seldom work in its
favour. The opening Kyrie proceeds slowly and thoughtfully,
but the damage really begins with the opening explosion of the
Gloria which feels ponderous and never communicates as
the Allegro vivace that the composer demands. This saps
the work of its energy and argument so that it often feels like
a trawl through the notes rather than a living, breathing performance.
Very ironic, this, because, while it isn’t specified in
the booklet, I’m pretty sure that most of the sessions
were taped live. Barenboim’s approach works fairly well
for some of the more meditative sections, most notably the Benedictus
with its beautifully played solo violin and richly ringing solo
voices, and it adds a little of the mystery to the Et incarnatus
est section of the Credo; however, there isn’t
enough contrast with the faster sections on either side of it
so there’s an equal argument that it ends up sapping the
movement of its potential power. This approach does the most
damage in the great structural fugues. Et vitam venturi
takes forever and sounds downright pretentious in places, though
In gloria Dei patris isn’t quite as bad. However,
the martial music in the Agnus Dei just sounds awful,
dragged out and self-conscious, and the final bars are broadened
out so much as to sound ridiculous. No, no, no: in spite of
some excellent solo singing, this is a Missa Solemnis
to set to one side because of the conductor’s inappropriate
sense of pacing and architectural scale.
Unfortunately, similar criticisms can be levelled against the
Brahms Requiem. The pacing here is so broad
as to be almost catatonic in places. The opening pulse is ridiculously
slow and, as with the Missa Solemnis, the big moments
are robbed of their drama. Denn alles Fleisch, in particular,
sounds heavy and portentous without being dramatic. Even the
great turning point of the movement, Aber des Herrn Wort,
loses its dramatic impact because it is just so slow, and the
final movement feels interminable. Not all is lost: Thomas Hampson
makes a compelling baritone soloist, while Janet Williams floats
beautifully in her movement. Here, too, the big fugal highlights
work much better. Dem Gerechten Seelen proceeds with
rock-like clarity, while Herr du bist wurtig is stable
and compelling, though I might have liked it with more pace
behind it. However, this too isn’t a reading I’ll
be coming back to in a hurry when there are so many other excellent
versions out there.
Happily, things improve significantly with the Verdi
Requiem. Barenboim’s dramatic gifts, so
evident from his work in the opera house, come to the fore in
this work and he paces it with much more agility, moving dynamically
from section to section and never dragging. A quick glance at
the quartet of soloists will let you see that you are in for
a dramatic as well as a musical treat. Their interactions are
outstanding, especially in the Quid sum miser and Lachrymosa
sections. Domingo sings the Recordare as if it were lifted
straight out of an opera, and Furlanetto plumbs extraordinary
depths in the Confutatis. Meier sings with wide-eyed
intensity. The quartet is offset by a sumptuous soprano from
Alessandra Marc, cresting over proceedings with beauty and intelligence,
though she runs out of steam slightly in the Libera me
with a tiny but perceptible loss of pitch. The choral singing
is biting and precise in the big moments, and the pacing of
the two great fugues is (almost) razor-sharp throughout. The
orchestral playing is excellent, with the famous Chicago brass
coming into their own in the Tiba mirum and Sanctus.
The recorded sound is excellent too, with each detail leaping
out of the speakers and coming alive to the listener.
One out of three isn’t a fantastic hit-rate, however,
and the set, while far from expensive, isn’t quite in
the rock bottom price bracket that would make me happy to recommend
it in spite of the sub-standard Brahms and Beethoven. Great
as is the Verdi, which you may be able to find separately, this
set as a whole is probably only for die-hard Barenboim followers.
It’s too much of a mixed achievement to recommend wholeheartedly.
Simon Thompson
Masterwork Index: German
requiem
Tina Kiberg (soprano) 