Puccini's Messa di Gloria
The Gramophone Choice
Coupled with Preludio sinfonico. Crisantemi
Antonello Palombi ten Gunnar Lundberg bar Hungarian Radio Choir and Orchestra / Pier Giorgio Morandi
Naxos 8 555304 (60' · DDD · T/t). Buy from Amazon
This recording is to be preferred to Antonio Pappano’s very fine account on EMI – and it’s not just a question of price. If the recorded sound isn’t as opulent as EMI’s, it’s very clear and lets in the light. If the dynamic contrasts aren’t so big, they’re also rather more refined. Generally Pier Giorgio Morandi prefers slightly faster speeds, though not so fast as Pappano when he really gets up some steam in the last sections of the Gloria. But in context Morandi brings out the inherent excitement very effectively and naturally whereas Pappano underlines it. With Pappano the majestic Verdian unisons of the ‘Qui tollis’ broaden like a great smile across a large face: it’s grand fun but tends towards vulgarity. Of the work as a whole, Morandi and his forces give a more youthful performance. There’s an easy lightness of step (the Gloria sets off with a dance).
The chorus is particularly fresh in tone and response, and the tenor soloist, Antonello Palombi, is more gracefully lyrical and Italianate in timbre than either Alagna (with Pappano) or his predecessor Carreras (with Scimone). The baritone is less apt and certainly no match for Hampson (Pappano) or Prey (Scimone); musical nevertheless, and blending well with his colleague in the Agnus Dei. In the string piece, Crisantemi, Morandi’s somewhat quicker tempo, still answering to the marking andante mesto, is welcome, keeping mawkishness at bay and limiting the over-exposure of rather thin material.
