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Search - Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra, Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan :: Verdi: Messa solenne
  | Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra, Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan Verdi: Messa solenne Genres: Pop, Classical
With the 2001 Giuseppe Verdi centenary in progress, musicologists and performers have been sweeping out some of the dustier corners of his nonoperatic work, and this release is an example. It offers the first known record... more » |
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Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
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Amazon.com With the 2001 Giuseppe Verdi centenary in progress, musicologists and performers have been sweeping out some of the dustier corners of his nonoperatic work, and this release is an example. It offers the first known recording of a recently discovered Mass, written in 1833 when the composer was still studying, together with other religious rarities from his otherwise irreligious pen: some early settings of the Qui Tollis and Tantum Ergo; a much later Pater Noster and Ave Maria, intended to be heard together even though they require different forces; and the freestanding Libera Me that ended up, adapted, as the Verdi Requiem finale. The Mass is inoffensively Rossinian, the Qui Tollis an essay in the style of Mozart; and they give you little sense of what their author would become. But this performance does, in the Qui Tollis, give you the wonderful young bel canto tenor Juan Diego Florez, heard recently at Covent Garden. And as always, Riccardo Chailly conducts with sensitivity to idiom and original intent--which also means that he opens out the scale of sound for the Libera Me, and delivers in the process an electrifying account. Christina Gallardo-Domas is the soloist for that and, along with Florez, adds some flesh and blood to what otherwise might appear to be collector's repertory. --Michael White |
CD ReviewsCharming - but mostly for the Verdi completist Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 01/30/2010 (4 out of 5 stars) "I am surprised to find that this disc has not yet been reviewed on Amazon, given that the first five items are "World Premiere Recordings" of newly discovered works, made as part of the Verdi centennial in 2001, though in truth that might reflect the essentially insubstantial nature of much of the music on offer here.
The programme consists of religious music spanning almost fifty years of Verdi's output, from the youthful Messa solenne to the 1880 settings of paraphrases attributed to Dante. The main item from both a quality and musicological point of view, is the proto-Libera me, composed in 1869 for Rossini's memorial mass but never performed, and of course eventually incorporated into the Manzoni Requiem with some vital enhancements and improvements. From a canary-fancier's perspective, the main attraction is in the performances by two lovely lyric tenors, then rising stars Juan Diego Flórez and Kenneth Tarver, and soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, who sings beautifully, especially in the Ave Maria. Neither of the woolly basses gives me much pleasure but they have little to sing. The early music is mostly sub-Rossini and hardly proleptic of Verdi's later style, whereas the large choral scale, advanced dissonances and the evident intent of paying homage to Palestrina evinced in two late pieces confirm that they are close cousins to the Four Sacred Songs of eight years later. It is the quality of singing in combination with the rich complexity and subtle harmonies of these two late works which urge me to confer another star on this disc, which would otherwise have been of marginal interest only. Chailly and his Milan forces play and sing beautifully, and the recording is fine, although I am slightly bothered by some rumble through the Ave Maria (air conditioning? It was made in July in Milan.)" |