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DiscountDelight - Verdi: Requiem & Operatic Choruses
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List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $10.27
Your Save: $ 8.71 ( 46% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Telarc
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0089408015229
Label: Telarc
Manufacturer: Telarc
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Telarc
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Studio: Telarc
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Related Items
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- Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) / Auger, Stilwell, Atlanta SO, Robert Shaw
- Fauré · Duruflé - Requiem / J. Blegen · J. Morris · Atlanta SO · Shaw
- Mozart: Requiem / McNair, Watkinson, Araiza, Lloyd; Marriner
- Berlioz: Requiem; Boito: Prologue to Mefistofele
- Bach: Mass in B minor / McNair, Ziegler, Simpson, Aler, Stone, Paul; Shaw
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb
Comment: I don't have anything to add to the excellent reviews, I just want to chime in with my vote. This was rated as the top recording of this piece when I bought it on recomendation of a tenor friend back in 1990 or so and it is probably the best sustained operatic performace I have found thus far. The power and the majesty of this piece needs to be heard to be believed. So... Buy it, make sure the neighbors are out, turn the lights out, it in your best listening spot, turn up the volume and press play.
Don't miss the final track on the second disk!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brings back memories
Comment: How could I possibly top the splendid review by Dominic Grant below? And his later graceful apology for a mere typo? Well, I just cannot. But I'd like to share my own thoughts, anyway.
With all the flap over the recently released Gergiev recording of the Verdi Requiem on Philips, with its unfortunate choice of Andrea Bocelli - a pop singer masquerading as an operatic singer - as tenor soloist, it is once again - and always - a pleasure to turn to a truly definitive recorded performance, that of Robert Shaw. As points of reference whenever I turn to this performance, I always have in mind earlier recordings by Giulini and Solti, among others. (I include a truly visceral one by Karel Ancerl and the Czech Philharmonic, featuring Galina Vishnevskaya with a "Libera me" to die for, and the type of Slavic excitement that Gergiev tries for but fails.)
Verdi's Requiem is, without doubt, the most operatic of such works as have become part of the liturgical canon. But it doesn't necessarily follow from this that the best recordings are the ones which utilize operatic superstars. Were that the case, Solti's recording, with Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti and Martti Talvela, would be unchallenged (particularly when one throws in the Vienna Philharmonic, as well as the typically excellent mid-60's sound that Decca was so good at). But, true to form, Solti just couldn't find the proper sensitivity and balance to make his performance the definitive one.
Shaw does what Solti could not do. In a work that requires efforts of equal quality by orchestra, soloists and chorus, there simply is no better chorus than a Shaw chorus. Shaw's four soloists, while perhaps not of the marquee value of the ones on the Solti recording, are outstanding. A previous customer reviewer certainly got it right when he said that Susan Dunn was a Verdi soprano to be reckoned with. And Diane Curry, Jerry Hadley and Paul Plishka are equally excellent. (Plishka, as I mention later, is one of my "memories.") Moreover, in a work which demands that the cataclysms of the Dies Irae and the tenderly supplicant closing pages of the Libera me be captured in proper proportions, none are better than Telarc at this challenge.
The personal friendship between Robert Shaw and the Cleveland-based Telarc team of Bob Woods and Jack Renner goes back to the days when Shaw was George Szell's assistant at the Cleveland Orchestra. Thus it was, when Woods and Renner introduced the "all-digital" Telarc label in the late 70's, that they turned to Shaw and his Atlantans as an enduring source for the recording of choral masterpieces. With the passing of Shaw some two years ago, it is now time that someone sum up his recorded legacy, which, under the aegis of Telarc, exceeds three dozen recordings. In my humble opinion, he will be remembered for a long, long time for three works that Telarc recorded with his forces: The Bach B Minor Mass, the Brahms German Requiem, and this Verdi Requiem.
Oh! The memories! For several years, at a time when Shaw's Atlanta forces were as good as they were to get, in the early 80's, I was fortunate to live in the Atlanta area, and to attend many of his concerts. And, in the fall of 1965, when Paul Plishka had just won a "young artist" award that was to lead to his Metropolitan Opera career, I was fortunate to have been a member of an amateur chorus which performed this work with a semi-pro orchestra and four young soloists. The names of the other three soloists were long ago relegated to the dustbin of history. But the bass soloist at that 1965 performance was none other than Paul Plishka. He's still banging the boards at the Met. One durable dude!
Once again, kudos to Mr. Grant for his superb review, and for his reminding me that I had some "unfinished business" to attend to.
Bob Zeidler
Customer Rating:
Summary: Apologies to Puccini.
Comment: Further to my review of the 18th of June below,it's just been brought to my attention by a kind reader that I have inadvertently ascribed the composition of the famous aria,"Nessun Dorma" from Turandot to Verdi himself.First of all,my sincere apologies to Puccini (probably still revolving in his grave !),and my apologies to you for grossly offending your musical sensibilities as you pass this way.That will teach me to spend a little longer editing my reviews before submitting them !
Customer Rating:
Summary: Susan Dunn: an under appreciated soprano.
Comment: I have had this CD for several years now and I listen to it more than any other CD. When I make tapes of my favorite opera music for friends, I most definetely include an exerpt of Susan Dunn's sublime soprano. Once I heard this amazing voice, particularly in the 'Libera me', I ran to the store to get another recording of Susan Dunn. Unfortunately there were none there and the only one I could order was a recording of a Schoenberg Requiem, no thank you. This recording is also where I first met Jerry Hadley and fell in love with the Verdi's 'Ingemisco'. The one facet that brings the whole work together, however, is the chorus and orchestra under the control of the late great Robert Shaw. The choir, perfectly blended, creates heavenly pianios followed by the majestic sound of the orchestra in the opening 'Requiem eternam'. Just hearing that section takes me instantly out of myself into a humble awe, something more than the emotional effect of beautiful music. I hope you become a personal friend of this once and never again recording.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great recording and the last authentic Verrdian Soprano
Comment: This may be the finest Verdi Requiem recording of the century. Shaw captured the essentials of what Verdi wrote, all you have to do is look at the score to find out. His tempo in Libera me is the most urgent and pointed to be found, and the chorus is stunning. Personally, no other Requiem recording gives me the satisfaction of this one, not least because of the truly Verdian singing of Susan Dunn, who retired after a very short career, quite possibly the shortest on record. I have heard Sutherland, Schwarzkopf, Caballe, and of the great Verdians Zinka Milanov, Martina Arroyo, Maria Caniglia and Leontyne Price, but not one of those ladies sang the soprano part so effectively as Susan Dunn. Her voice is lighter than the her predecessors but the accent is more precise, her pianissimi, mezze voce, messe di voce, are more consistent with the score. Her pitch is excellent, her tone is full of chiarosuro--light but not white, her diction is clear and her legato is lovely. What makes her Verdian is the color of her voice, her ability to accent a soaring legato line, her dynamic ability, and the awesome power of her voice in spite of its inherent lightness. We have lost the only singer who could have worn Leontyne Price's crown. Price wore Milanov's after the latter had worn Ponselle's. Caniglia was also a great Verdian in her own right as was Rethberg and Arroyo, but the holy grail of Verdian soprano's are these three: Milanov, Price and Susan Dunn. Buy this CD today!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Robert Shaw learned from Arturo Toscanini, and in his stupendous 1987 recording for Telarc he managed to surpass the master on some points. He is unerring in his pacing and staging of climaxes, and draws phrasing and dynamics from the chorus that other conductors can only dream of. Points are made with exhilarating effect throughout the account: never has the bass drum in the Dies irae been as splendidly hammered as here, and the whooping brass in the Tuba mirum is breathtaking. The all-American solo quartet sounds a bit driven, especially the light-voiced Susan Dunn and Jerry Hadley, but their contribution is a strong one nonetheless. --Ted Libbey
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