Live performances have to be very, very good if they are to
be worth marketing as CDs (unless of course they are intended for a special
restricted market – family, friends etc - which is a different matter).
So this recording really need not detain us for long, as it is a performance
which may have been fine live, even quite exciting, but doesn’t really
pass muster as a commercial recording, especially when the work concerned
is such a celebrated and justly popular one.
Balance is a problem, with soloists uncomfortably close;
this emphasises the rather metallic quality of Rosamund Illing’s voice,
despite her undoubted feel for the drama of the music. Some of her high
notes are really quite painfully harsh, though I feel this is in large
part due to the recording balance. Dennis O’Neill, a singer for whom
I have enormous respect, is another who seems ill-served; indeed I wonder
if he was happy about this issue, as it presents him in far from his
best light. The mezzo-soprano soloist, Bernadette Cullen, sings with
commitment, while bass Bruce Martin is easily the most convincing of
the soloists, with enough darkness in his voice, but plenty of lyrical
feel for the music too. As a quartet, these four have their problems;
for example, as so often, the unaccompanied passage in the Lacrimosa
(track 10 2:45) is virtually atonal, as is a similar moment towards
the end of the Offertorium.
The predominance of the soloists means that much orchestral
detail is hard to pick out. The off-stage brass in the Tuba Mirum
(track 3) are pretty well inaudible, particularly when the whole
choir and orchestra pitch in. And the very opening of the piece - ’cellos
soli - is so soft that you have to adjust the volume to its highest
setting simply to hear it, only to get blasted out of your seat later
on!
The choir, too, have some problems getting across,
which is not surprising if the booklet is to be believed, as it describes
the Opera Australia Chorus as consisting of just forty-eight voices,
which makes this work very hard going for them. However, there
is no doubt about the quality of their voices, and their singing of
the treacherous fugue in the Libera me (track 19, 0:20) is impressively
accurate and energetic.
Simone Young directs with passionate commitment, and
a sense of the drama of ‘Verdi’s greatest opera’. Yet her creditable
desire not to let the tension drop leads to some uncomfortable moments,
particularly in the lovely Salva me section of the Dies Irae
(track 6, 0:25), where soloists really need space and time for their
soaring phrases.
This CD will revive memories of what was probably a
very special occasion for performers and audience like; as a commercial
recording, it isn’t really a competitor.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Opera and Ballet Orchestra/Simone Young