Verdi Requiem - Your Favourite Recording

[Petrushka]

Does anyone know if it was released as a CD? I somehow doubt that it was......?

Not as far as I am aware but Am51 does give the youTube link above. If contractual arrangements can be made it would make a terrific DVD in the ICA Classics catalogue.

[martin_opera]

Great piece and interpreted in many different ways. i agree with the enthusiasm for the recent Barenboim - very spiritual (perhaps more than the music indicates?)

Of the versions not mentioned Karajan's video with Leontyne Price, Pavarotti, Cossotto and Ghiaurov is stupendous for the voices - all at their peak and Cossotto and Karajan clearly in sync. Price is better here than on the Reiner, which is unbearably slow (like Barbirolli's, which must rank as a disappointment, except for Caballe who floats beautifully in the Libera Me - this isn't Barbirolli (Abbado?) but you get the idea. Strikes me that she has the perfect voice for this part.

However, on the Karajan video I do always end up cracking up at the less than glamorous La Scale chorus though - there are some "character actors from a Fellini film" in there.

Oh...and in answer to the original post BAL views on this have changed: originally the Fricsay on DG with Maria Stader was the top choice. The last time I remember them doing it (10 yeara go?) Leonard Bernstein with Martina Arroyo and Domingo came out top with honorable mention for Colin Davis and Carol Vaness and Denis O'Neil. Am sure they've done it more recently but Presto Classical's database is letting me down on this one.

[visualnickmos]

Not as far as I am aware but Am51 does give the youTube link above. If contractual arrangements can be made it would make a terrific DVD in the ICA Classics catalogue.

Thank you Petrushka. I was pretty sure that was the case. I have the Bernstein LSO CD, which I've had for donkey's years, and very good it is, too. More recently I stumbled across the (at bargain price ) Solti Decca CD. WOW! is all I can say

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sutherland / Pavarotti / Price / Talvela // Solti.

For sheer operatic excitement and electrifying orchestra playing.

I agree. And no other recording I've heard has such tremendous bass drum thwacks in the Dies Irae - John Culshaw's last Decca recording. However, it's a pity the superb soloists don't really blend with one another.

[makropulos]

I agree. And no other recording I've heard has such tremendous bass drum thwacks in the Dies Irae - John Culshaw's last Decca recording. However, it's a pity the superb soloists don't really blend with one another.

I agree - it's terrific (despite the very individual voices of the soloists), and the sound is amazing. I think most of my other favourites have already been mentioned, including Guilini (EMI and DG), Gardiner and Pappano. The Toscanini performance on RCA is pretty stunning too, even if the sound isn't.

[Conchis]

I agree. And no other recording I've heard has such tremendous bass drum thwacks in the Dies Irae - John Culshaw's last Decca recording. However, it's a pity the superb soloists don't really blend with one another.

It was actually his penultimate Decca recording, from October 1967: his swansong came with Billy Budd at the Kingsway Hall two months later.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I admit I was apprehensive about posting such a bold statement. I recall his article "3 for the road" in a 1967 issue of Gramophone, but didn't remember the exact chronology.

[Conchis]

I admit I was apprehensive about posting such a bold statement. I recall his article "3 for the road" in a 1967 issue of Gramophone, but didn't remember the exact chronology.

I could be wrong but I think the first of the three was the Solti Elektra, taped in late 1966/early 1967.

[Ferretfancy]

I remember Culshaw's article in which he said that in the Verdi he thought that they had succeeded in making Joan Sutherland into a dramatic soprano. He also mentioned that Elektra was originally recorded with some "traditional" cuts. It took him quite a lot of effort to persuade Solti to restore the missing sections at a session with Nilsson many months later.
I think that the Elektra recording is the least successful technically of the Solti Strauss recordings, with quite a lot of dynamic compression, not to mention the offstage gargling as Klytemnestra meets her demise!

[Conchis]

I remember Culshaw's article in which he said that in the Verdi he thought that they had succeeded in making Joan Sutherland into a dramatic soprano. He also mentioned that Elektra was originally recorded with some "traditional" cuts. It took him quite a lot of effort to persuade Solti to restore the missing sections at a session with Nilsson many months later.
I think that the Elektra recording is the least successful technically of the Solti Strauss recordings, with quite a lot of dynamic compression, not to mention the offstage gargling as Klytemnestra meets her demise!

I think ii"s the best thing they ever did together, ott sound effects and all!

[Barbirollians]

I have mentioned elsewhere that I have never really " got " Verdi's Requiem . I have found myself hectored by it even in such fine performances as the BAL winning Pappano , Solti in the RCA recording, Abbado, JEG and Giulini so I have tried .

Coming across the Mozart Requiem recording with Barenboim the Eco and a starry set of soloists on You Tube I was very impressed and bought it very cheaply coupled with the Barbirolli Verdi Requiem which seemed to have had very lukewarm reviews . Alan Blyth in Gramophone thought it was a bit slow in parts but felt it might appeal to those looking for a more consoling vision .

Well I am not sure about that though I know what he means . It is the first time I have ever really been moved by this work .The soloists are terrific Caballe,Cossotto, Vickers and Raimondi and there is more than enough drama for me . A wonderful much underrated performance and who knows whether Barbirolli knew how much little time he had left when this was recorded in late 1969 and early 1970.

[DracoM]

Solti / Sutherland / Pavarotti et al. Thrilling.

[visualnickmos]

Solti / Sutherland / Pavarotti et al. Thrilling.

Yep - that's the one!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Toscanini performance on RCA is pretty stunning too, even if the sound isn't.

- I have no problem with the sound when the performance is as exactly right as it is here.

[Keraulophone]

Solti clearly must have given both his bass drum players the death stare of the screaming skull. The thwacks in both his Vienna and Chicago recordings are among the most irate ever recorded. Perhaps the Decca thwacks are too obviously close-miked, whereas the RCA bass drum sounds deeper and even more majestic IMO even though heard less close-up. Good old analogue. Janet Baker deserves special mention in the later recording.