We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
Verdi: Messa da Requiem; I vespri siciliana Overture / Schubert: Mass in E flat, D950 ~ Giulini
Share Tweet
About Verdi: Messa Da Requiem; I Vespri Siciliana
Amazon.com Notwithstanding its opaque sound and miscast soprano, Guilini's EMI version of Verdi's masterpiece (sadly out of print) has been universally considered among the best Requiems since it was made in 1963. This near-contemporaneous BBC broadcast performance doesn't improve on the sound. Although it does bring the chorus forward, orchestral detail is obscured, soloists are spotlighted, and occasionally there's some transfer-induced fuzz. The soloists aren't as starry a group as the EMI quartet, but they hold their own. Richard Lewis was a great Handel/Mozart tenor but doesn't have the Radamès voice Verdi requires, while David Ward is serviceable. Anna Reynold's rich mezzo and Amy Shuard's moving "Libera me" are fine, as is the chorus. Guilini conveys a spiritual intensity a notch or two higher than that of his studio version. The generous filler is Guilini's 1968 broadcast performance of Schubert's great Mass, done with touching tenderness, more energetic and flowing than his spacious 1990s Sony recording. --Dan Davis
