Verdi Messa da Requiem
A choral showcase but the solo singers let down this performance
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giuseppe Verdi
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Magazine Review Date: 12/2010
Media Format: Super Audio CD
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: CSOR9011008

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Messa da Requiem |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Barbara Frittoli, Soprano Chicago Symphony Chorus Chicago Symphony Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Ildar Abdrazakov, Bass Mario Zeffiri, Tenor Olga Borodina, Mezzo soprano Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Author: Richard Osborne
If CSO Resound has released this 2009 performance of Verdi’s Requiem to showcase the Chicago Symphony Chorus, it might well have a point. The choral work, warmly recorded in its own discrete acoustic, is first-rate. That, alas, cannot be said of the singing of the not especially well matched solo quartet. The bass Ildar Abdrazakov is fine but in the Requiem’s many sustained high-lying passages soprano Barbara Frittoli has the kind of distracting flutter I get on my FM radio signal when a jumbo jet is grinding overhead (possibly on its way to Chicago). Even Olga Borodina, a noted exponent of the Requiem, is below her best here. As for Muti, many of his tempi are slower than one might have anticipated. Fielding a large chorus and a heavyweight orchestra with German-sounding brass may be a factor. Over the years he hasn’t had much luck with the Requiem on record. On the evidence of this recording, his luck hasn’t changed.
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