Giuseppe VERDI
Pezzi Sacri
Stabat Mater (1896 / 7)
Laudi alla Vergine Maria (1896 / 7)
Te Deum (1896 / 7)
Ave Maria (1889)
Ave Maria (1880)
Ave Maria from Othello (Act iv)
Libera Me, Domine (1869)
 Choir and Orchestra of the
Academy of St. Cecilia/Myung-Whun Chung
recorded 9 / 2000 in Auditorio di Via della Conciliazione, Rome.
DG 469 075-2 [62.56]
DDD |
 |
| Crotchet
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
Amazon
recommendations |
Since leaving the Bastille in Paris, Myung-Whun Chung has made his recordings
of choral music primarily in Italy, and very welcome these have been. The
repertoire has also been slightly off the beaten track, which has made his
latest recordings doubly welcome given the high performance and recording
standards.
On this release we have a collection of sacred pieces from Verdi, a well
known agnostic. Similar composers, (Berlioz springs to mind) have been inspired
by the power of the words in liturgical texts without necessarily believing
the message behind them. Sometimes an objective view can produce a work just
as moving as that written by a believer.
So it proves here with Chung's collection of seven works sung beautifully
by the Italian forces. There is a discipline in the singing which might make
you suspect that the source of the singing was anywhere other than the land
of opera.
The playing of the orchestra cannot be faulted, and the DG recording quality
is well up to their usual standard. The acoustic has also been very well
managed with a very impressive bloom to the voices and orchestra, sounding
for once as though they were recorded together. There is no 4D logo on this
issue and so I assume that this technology has not been used here. There
is no shortcoming from that quarter.
The first four of these pieces are usually known by their collective name
of Quattro Pezzi Sacri and are often performed as such. According
to the sleeve note, this was a suggestion made to Verdi by his publisher
Ricordi, and was not the intention of the composer. Nevertheless, this title
has stuck and with this issue, the formerly semi-rigid arrangement of these
pieces is somewhat separated by adding to them a further three works of a
very similar nature.
In his later years, Verdi was increasingly drawn to the works of Palestrina,
and although there is no unaccompanied polyphony from him, Verdi's religious
works are more attuned to this than the operas. Of the three additional works,
two of them are Ave Marias, the first written in 1880 for soprano and strings.
The soloist here (Carmela Remigo) sings with a very pure voice (albeit with
a somewhat wide vibrato), and gives a most impressive performance, ably
accompanied by the strings. Opera is not ignored, however as we are also
treated to the Ave Maria from Act IV of "Othello"
The last work on the disc is Verdi's contribution to the infamous Messa per
Rossini written as a collaborative work by 13 different composers and performed
on the first anniversary of the death of Rossini. Verdi reserved the Libera
Me for himself, and this setting was used later as the model for the Libera
Me in his Requiem Mass.
John Phillips
