A belated thank you for your support, Antonio.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem (Antonio Pappano)


Information

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi

CD1:
  1. Messa da Requiem: I. Requiem
  2. Messa da Requiem: I. Requiem. Kyrie eleison
  3. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Dies irae
  4. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Tuba mirum
  5. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Mors stupebit
  6. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Liber scriptus
  7. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Quid sum miser
  8. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Rex tremendae
  9. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Recordare
  10. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Ingemisco
  11. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Confutatis
  12. Messa da Requiem: II. Sequenza. Lacrimosa
CD2:
  1. Messa da Requiem: III. Offertorio. Domine Jesu Christe
  2. Messa da Requiem: III. Offertorio. Hostias
  3. Messa da Requiem: IV. Sanctus
  4. Messa da Requiem: V. Agnus Dei
  5. Messa da Requiem: VI. Lux aeterna
  6. Messa da Requiem: VII. Libera me. Libera me, Domine
  7. Messa da Requiem: VII. Libera me. Dies irae
  8. Messa da Requiem: VII. Libera me. Requiem aeternam
  9. Messa da Requiem: VII. Libera me. Libera me, Domine

Anja Harteros, soprano
Sonia Ganassi, mezzo-soprano
Rolando Villazón, tenor
René Pape, bass
Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Date: 2009
Label: EMI
http://www.warnerclassics.com/release/550718,5099969893629/pappano-antonio-verdi-messa-da-requiem

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Review

When Hans von Bülow described the Requiem as “Verdi’s latest opera, albeit in ecclesiastical garb”’, the ever percipient Brahms declared that he had made “an almighty fool of himself”. There always has been more to Verdi’s Requiem than popular perception would have us believe, which is why its recorded history has become so important to our evolving understanding of it. Three recordings stand out as landmark achievements: Toscanini’s live 1951 Carnegie Hall performance, Giulini’s 1963-64 studio recording, and the 1992 John Eliot Gardiner. To which we can now add, as a superbly realized garnering of these accumulated insights, this exceptionally fine new Pappano set.

Toscanini’s performance represented the old authenticity. Toscanini played for Verdi and knew the tradition from within. He conducted the Requiem with Italian singers and an unremitting intensity, born in part of a desire to honour the often surprisingly brisk metronome marks. It was Giulini who forged another way, more Catholic and more considered, in a reading that opened out the work’s meditative aspect, marrying broad tempi in the lyric sections to a powerfully argued dramatic continuum organically evolved.

So concentrated an approach places great demands on the solo quartet and here Giulini set the bar high in terms of both the quality of the voices needed and their blend. Without these qualities – Gardiner’s soloists have them and so in remarkable measure do Pappano’s – the Holy Grail of a near-perfect Verdi Requiem will always be a distant dream, as is proved by Abbado’s oddly (and in a couple of cases, poorly) cast 2001 Berlin set.

Talk of Gardiner’s recording being a “period performance” was misleading. Gardiner further developed our sense of the multilayered skill of Verdi’s vocal writing. His expert shaping of the vocal lines – tempi finely judged, often broad, never metronomically driven – revealed the work occupying spaces which Bruckner or Fauré might have been pleased to inhabit. And now Pappano follows suit. The Monteverdi Choir, you might think, would have a head start over Rome’s Santa Cecilia Chorus; yet it is a sign of how far choral singing has come in recent years that nowadays even an Italian opera chorus is not easily outmanoeuvred. The Santa Cecilia “Sanctus”, defter than Giulini’s, is almost as dancingly precise as Gardiner’s. Moulding vocal and instrumental lines with an authentically Italianate feel is important to any performance of the Requiem. Second nature to Toscanini and Giulini, it is a quality that contributes hugely to the eloquence and allure of Pappano’s performance. You hear this early in the sense of a live narrative unfolding which mezzo soprano Sonia Ganassi brings to the “Liber scriptus”. Fine as Gardiner’s Anne Sofie von Otter is at this point, the manner is a degree or two less Italianate.

Ganassi’s soprano partner is Anja Harteros. Where Giulini sought fuller voices – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Christa Ludwig, both flawless and richly involving – Harteros’s lighter yet similarly accomplished singing, radiant and sympathetic, suits Pappano’s reading to perfection: part and parcel of the wonderful blend within the quartet. It was Giulini’s Nicolai Gedda who showed how the tenor is more an inspiring presence than an egregious showstopper. Rolando Villazón is similarly discreet in the self-abasing loveliness of his “Ingemisco” and the proffered quiet of the “Hostias”. Meanwhile, the bass René Pape is as fine as any on record, strong yet discreet, with a mastery of the subtly inflected cantabile line that is profoundly satisfying. As with Alastair Miles’s not dissimilar performance under Gardiner, this is markedly different from the Commendatore-like manner of Giulini’s Nicolai Ghiaurov.

Where London’s Kingsway Hall barely contained the might of Giulini’s reading, Rome’s superb new Parco della Musica auditorium is all clarity and ease, as sympathetic to the Lieder-like musings of the “Agnus Dei” as it is to the decibel-fuelled fires of the “Dies irae”. Pappano’s all-inclusive reading needs both.

My sole reservation concerns the opening. The composer Ildebrando Pizzetti spoke of the Requiem beginning “like the murmur of an invisible crowd”. Even so, you will have difficulty hearing anything on the new set much before bar 6. What I miss here is the old Italian way of suggesting intense quiet with a pianissimo that truly sounds. Pappano’s tempo for the first 77 bars is not, by post-Toscanini standards, unduly slow yet on this occasion it is only with the arrival of the tenor’s cry of “Kyrie” that the great musical journey really begins.

That apart, it is wonderful to hear the Requiem so memorably revealed as the dramatic and meditative masterpiece it clearly is.

-- Richard Osborne, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday: ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
BBC Music Magazine PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fvrj
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Nov09/Verdi_Requiem_6989362.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Feb10/Verdi_Requiem_6989362.htm
http://classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=7573
http://www.musicalcriticism.com/recordings/cd-pappano-verdi-0909.shtml
http://www.allmusic.com/album/giuseppe-verdi-messa-da-requiem-mw0001430793
http://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Messa-Requiem-Giuseppe/dp/B002HIEIVK

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Giuseppe Verdi (9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer of operas. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works significantly influenced him, becoming one of the pre-eminent opera composers of the late nineteenth century. His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata, and the bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Verdi

***

Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is an English conductor and pianist. A pianist as well as a conductor, he attracted the attention of fellow pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and became his assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. He also worked in Barcelona and Frankfurt, and served as an assistant to Michael Gielen. In 2002, he was named the music director of the Royal Opera House, with current contract runs through to 2017. In 2005 he became music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

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FLAC, tracks
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Enjoy!

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Thank you very much. Very good record. Greetings from Buenos Aires.-

    ReplyDelete
  4. Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem - Antonio Pappano

    Hello Ronald Do..!!

    Please, it is possible to upload this Opus in MP3.??
    Since the day June 13, 2017
    I could not Download in FLAC, tracks...
    Sorry for the inconvenience.-
    Thank you very much. Regards.!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've checked these links and they are still working. Any reason you want this specifically in MP3?
      If you have trouble downloading MEGA links, you can use JDownloader (http://jdownloader.org), which is, imo, a wonderful software.

      Delete
    2. OK Ronald Do.!!

      I used "JDownloader" and can actually download
      the two compact discs, and without problems.-

      I really appreciate your good advice.-

      From Buenos Aires I send greetings
      and have a Happy Sunday.-

      Thank you very much.!!

      Delete

  5. Estimado Ronald Do..!!

    ""Any reason you want this specifically in MP3?""

    Yes, but before thanks a lot for your kind answer.-

    I do not have a great CD player, then it is not very
    important for me to lose some sound, and in my CD player
    sounds better in MP3...

    SONY - Micro Hi-Fi Component System - CTM-EH 15

    (You see..?)

    My greetings and many thank you again.-


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see that you've already downloaded these FLAC files. If you really want them in MP3, I suggest you can use a software to convert them yourself. I recommend Foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org)

      Delete
  6. Hello Ronald. Could you re-upload this recording? The links have all expired. Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Skip Ad' (or 'Get link').
    If you are asked to download or install anything, IGNORE, only download from file hosting site (mega.nz).
    If MEGA shows 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded' message, try to create a free account.

    CD1 http://apticirl.com/8fQy
    CD2 http://apticirl.com/8fQz
    or
    CD1 https://uii.io/d5ES
    CD2 https://uii.io/NUAt
    or
    CD1 https://exe.io/8vckEw
    CD2 https://exe.io/8FbiuG

    ReplyDelete