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Sunday, April 2, 2023

Gioachino Rossini - Messa di Gloria (Antonio Pappano)


Information

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
  1. Messa di Gloria: I. Kyrie eleison
  2. Messa di Gloria: II. Christe eleison
  3. Messa di Gloria: III. Kyrie eleison
  4. Messa di Gloria: IV. Gloria in excelsis Deo
  5. Messa di Gloria: V. Laudamus te
  6. Messa di Gloria: VI. Gratias agimus tibi
  7. Messa di Gloria: VII. Domine Deus
  8. Messa di Gloria: VIII. Qui tollis peccata mundi
  9. Messa di Gloria: IX. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris
  10. Messa di Gloria: X. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus
  11. Messa di Gloria: XI. Cum Sancto Spiritu

Eleonora Buratto, soprano
Teresa Iervolino, mezzo-soprano
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Michael Spyres, tenor
Carlo Lepore, bass

Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Date: 2022
Label: Warner Classics

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Review

While I acknowledge that any pretensions to piety Rossini might have had should be regarded with a fair degree of scepticism, I find much to enjoy in liturgical works such as his Stabat mater and Petite messe solennelle, despite the lack of the “sacred” in their style. Verdi’s Requiem is still similarly lumbered with the taunt “his greatest opera” but it surely contains a great deal more of the reverential than we find in the youthful Rossini’s Messa di Gloria, which at times has far more in common with opera seria – and even buffa - than music suitable for the Catholic Mass.

In truth, I was first rather surprised that the venerable Sir Tony, saw fit to record it but he goes out of his way, as reported in his conversation with Jon Tolansky included as notes in the booklet and translated into French and German, to emphasise that this is “a mass of light…fear is not really present”, which is why the Credo and Crucifixus are omitted as too sombre in content. He skips round the question of whether Rossini was devout by pointing out that, like Verdi and Puccini, he was brought up immersed in and surrounded by the trappings of piety and was at the very least “a cultural Catholic” (my words, not his) through and through, and therefore the question of the composer’s faith is irrelevant. The importation of operatic tropes and even direct borrowings Pappano ascribes to being integral to Rossini’s true style, and I cannot argue with that; nonetheless, there are inevitably occasions when the style of the music jars with the text or skirts banality.

The series of dissonant chords opening to the Kyrie is certainly grand and arresting but immediately defaults in the chirpy, perky, “chugging” mode of the overture to Il barbiere. However, that perkiness is counteracted by the weight of the choral contribution and the density of the orchestration, it is true. The ensuing tenor duet on ‘Christe eleison’ is certainly catnip to operaphiles; the display pieces for the tenors were specifically designed to show off the talents of singers such as Rubini and high tenor Lawrence Brownlee has been recruited here to tackle those…arias, as we must surely call them and he impresses – but after his florid, high-tessitura contribution we are subjected to a second choral Kyrie which definitely approaches the banal and the orchestral introduction to the Gloria is scarcely more dignified.

Pappano describes the work as requiring “virtuosity in the orchestra and the voices” alike, but on the evidence of my ears, his team of five singers features only two singers whom I would confidently describe as virtuoso performers, and that is Brownlee and Michael Spyres; when all the singers make their first combined contribution in the Gloria I am unimpressed but the windy, groaning bass and I hear nothing exceptional in the first solo contribution of the soprano in the Laudamus te, although she is pleasant enough, if a bit shrill of tone and the music itself is conventional, bordering on the formulaic and trivial. The mezzo-soprano is similarly competent but without an especially rich lower register. A nice cor anglais solo precedes another showpiece – the longest movement here and clearly central - for Brownlee whose voice, as I can attest from attending live performances, is sweet and agile but really quite small and I cannot hear how the import of the sacred text is reflected in his vocal pyrotechnics, for all Pappano’s assertion the Latin lends it gravitas.

The Qui tollis and Qui sedes movements provide the opportunity for Michael Spyres to exercise his vocal flexibility. His is a larger, flexible but not especially beautiful voice without the same ease up top as Brownlee but he flicks a top C-sharp successfully twice; his music is demanding if unremarkable in content and rather empty of emotional content. The bass heaves and grumbles his way through the Quoniam which is distinguished by an adept clarinet solo. The concluding Cum sancto spirito – almost certainly written with the help fugue specialist Pietro Raimondi – for the lusty but precise chorus only is rather dry and conventional – apart from a striking halt and emphatic reprise halfway through.

The orchestra, having been brought on by Pappano, is as good as any these days. A composite recording, assembled from live performances, its sound is exemplary - plenty of space around it without losing detail or balance.

-- Ralph MooreMusicWeb International


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Gioachino Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname "The Italian Mozart". A few of Rossini's operas remained popular throughout his lifetime and continuously since his death; others were resurrected from semi-obscurity in the last half of the 20th century.

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Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959 in Epping, Essex) is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. After musical training in piano, composition, and conducting, he became a rehearsal accompanist at the New York City Opera by the age of 21. Pappano attracted the attention of 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. Pappano has been music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden since 2002, and of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since 2005.

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