Giuseppe Verdi - Messa da Requiem; Quattro Pezzi Sacri

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)

Messa da Requiem (1874)

Leontyne Price (soprano)

Rosalind Elias (mezzo-soprano) 

Jussi Bjorling (tenor) 

Giorgi Tozzi (bass)

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 

Fritz Reiner 

Quattro Pezzi Sacri (1898)

Yvonne Minton (mezzo-soprano)

Los Angeles Master Chorale Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

Zubin Mehta

Reviews:

Leontyne Price in her early thirties, and Jussi Björling shortly before his death at 49: these are the two outstanding reasons for acquiring this reissue. Both singers close-focus on the vulnerability of the human condition within the monumental scale of Fritz Reiner’s reading and Björling’s ‘Ingemisco’, rock-solid of contour, yet with a core of anguished supplication, is one of the real wonders of this performance.

Reiner’s slow tempi will not be to everyone’s taste: they unsettle the male choral entry at ‘Te decet hymnus’, and sometimes seem to hold back the singers against their better instincts. Concerted numbers such as the ‘Lacrymosa’ and ‘Offertorio’ are rhythmically steady to a fault; choral and orchestral rhythms are robust and rigorous in the ‘Dies irae’ and ‘Sanctus’.

It’s the natural, instinctive breathing of Mehta’s direction of the Four Sacred Pieces, with Yvonne Minton’s golden trumpet-flare of hope in the Te Deum, which makes these bonus performances so special.

Hilary Finch (BBC Music Magazine)

__________________________________________________

For a few decades now, Fritz Reiner’s recording of the Verdi Requiem (one of his rare stereo recordings not made for RCA, and not with the Chicago Symphony) has lurked in the shadowy corners of Decca’s catalog, appearing only on budget LPs and CD two-fers. Now, in its latest incarnation as part of the Decca Legends series, it may at last get the recognition it deserves. Reiner’s rendition has several things going for it, not least of which are the superstar soprano and tenor soloists. In 1960 Leontyne Price was at the beginning of her illustrious career, delivering on this occasion that same radiant, ravishing singing that would soon have Metropolitan Opera audiences deliriously applauding. In contrast, Jussi Björling’s performing days were dwindling (he would die only three months after these sessions), and though his singing no longer had the super-precision and stamina of his youth, it still retained its passionate humanity, with squillo tones that would still make many a modern tenor cry and gnash his teeth (his thrillingly ardent Ingemisco is a case in point). Rosalind Elias’ burnished mezzo and Giorgio Tozzi’s buff and beefy bass complete the solid, if not ideally matched quartet.

Reiner himself is more controversial. At almost 99 minutes, this is one of the longest Requiems on record, a real surprise to those who know this conductor from his lithe and lean Chicago Symphony recordings. After setting a very deliberate pace for the Requiem aeternam, Reiner floors it for the Dies irae, establishing a pattern of extremes that will hold pretty much throughout the performance. The Vienna Philharmonic produces many beautiful colors under Reiner’s baton, but as with Karajan’s and Solti’s recordings, I think this orchestra sounds too cultured for this music. Nonetheless, this is a deeply felt and highly emotive performance that deserves shelf space next to Ferenc Fricsay’s blistering German Radio broadcast on DG and Robert Shaw’s powerfully recorded Atlanta reading on Telarc.

Zubin Mehta’s elevated performance of Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces, with stunning work from the Los Angeles Master Chorale (with Yvonne Minton) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, proves more than just a makeweight, being nearly reason enough on its own to purchase this disc. Decca’s remastered sound reveals a very naturally engineered recording in the Sofiensaal for the Requiem (with voices realistically placed, but a little shy in the bass response) and a near audiophile one for the Los Angeles production.

Victor Carr Jr (Classics Today)