Customer Reviews

Arturo Toscanini Legacy, Vol. XI - Verdi: Requiem Mass; Te Deum / Cherubini: Requiem in C Minor

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have enjoyed Toscanini's performances of classical music since I was a teenager, now almost 35 years ago, but I was never very happy about the thin, shrill sound of his recordings. Why did they sound so bad? It took me years to discover that, unlike Stokowski or Koussevitzky, Toscanini had no interest in the technical side of making records. As long as he could hear all the orchestral "voices," he was content, if not entirely happy. This left the technical end of the business up to various producers and engineers at RCA, many of whom had their own crackpot ideas about how to position microphones. (Please remember, the early RCA Opera Series LPs sounded just as thin, shrill and dry as Toscanini's recordings; remember the Reiner "Carmen," or the Cellini recordings of "Rigoletto" and "Il Trovatore.") What this did was compress the tremendous crescendos that Toscanini achieved, turning them into crunching sounds that simply overwhelmed the microphones. And then, when these tapes were processed into LP discs, they compressed the sound even more, with the result that Toscanini sounded as if he were conducting a military band in your bathroom instead of a real, live symphony orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

With the advent of 20-bit remastering, however, and the dedication of real music-lovers intent on restoring (as much as possible) the sound of the original tapes, RCA has issued a mere 24 CDs of the Toscanini legacy in this new format (in 12 2-CD sets). Luckily, the series includes his Beethoven symphonies, which were landmarks of the time, as well as Italian orchestral music that meant a lot to him (see listings). And it also includes these 1950-54 performances of the Cherubini Requiem, as well as the Verdi Requiem and Te Deum.

Words cannot describe how wonderful this Verdi Requiem sounds, especially in comparison to the original LPs (may they rest in pieces). Only in two or three places do the massed sound of choirs, brass, strings and percussion have the "nasty" crunching sound as in the past. Otherwise, even in the "Libera me," the percussion and brass sounds wonderfully natural. And, finally, one can hear the natural Carnegie Hall ambience around the voices of the soloists, Herva Nelli, Fedora Barbieri, Giuseppe DiStefano and Cesare Siepi, who are all in fabulous voice.

As for the performance: I have been told by many Toscanini experts that his 1940 performance with Milanov and Jussi Bjorling far surpasses this one, but I once owned that recording and don't you believe it. Granted, the "Ingemisco" and "Offertorio" are swifter and tauter here than in the 1940 recording, but they sound wonderful in context. Indeed, I found myself both emotionally moved and intellectually satisfied by this Requiem as I have been by no other...not even the great Giulini and Karajan recordings. For the first time EVER, I perceived an underlying structure in the work, rather than just hearing it as a sort of suite of interesting but disconnected fragments. I also heard orchestral details that passd unnoticed in even the best digital stereo versions, i.e. sinister oboes and bassoons in the earlier sections, pizzicato strings in the "Libera me." Please, please believe me, this is a MIRACULOUS performance.

The "Te Deum," from 1954, boasts the most modern and natural sound of all. But what really surprised me was the clarity and warmth imparted to the Cherubini Requiem, which was recorded in the "notorious" Studio 8-H. Suffice to say that, in comparison to all other available versions of these works, these are THE preferred performances...especially so now that you can actually hear them without cringing.

I bought the 1990 remastering of the Verdi "Requiem" but after one or two times, I did not listen to it very often, since the sound was compressed and the loudest passages were badly distorted. This new remastering is a significant improvement over the older one, and allows the listener to really enjoy the performance, unhindered by sonic annoyances. The performance was a live radio broadcast, with all of the intensity and power that the best such performances can have. Highly recommended as the definitive "historical" performance of the Verdi "Requiem".

I've heard before-and-after examples of BMG's amazing remastering job on the old Toscanini archive, and this Verdi Requiem is one of the very best. Despite the original microphone placement, which puts the chorus a bit too far back and the inner woodwinds too close, those are quibbles compared to the vibrant solo voices and the sudden expansion of space compared to the pinched acoustic we've winced over for fifty years.

This is a work that Toscanini has only himself to compete with. He didn't take a revernet approach to the Requiem--the whole cast of Aida has taken a wrong turn and wound up in church. Much of the time the soloists are clearly competing, and why not? Siepi, Di Stefano, and Barbieri in full voice are magnificent. Herva Nelli had no significant career on records aside from those with Toscanini, but she comes across here as a secure, committed dramatic soprano.

That Toscanini's reading fits on one disc testifies to its fiery tempos and untethered drama. The Robert Shaw chorale wouldn't be bettered until professional choruses became the norm in following decades; too bad they are the least audible aspect of the recording. I think this Verdi Requiem must be judged a first-choice, along with the Debussy La Mer, among the newly remastered "Immortal" series that I've encountered so far.

Although Verdi really challenges singers in so much of his music, there's no question that he wrote well for the voice. This is quite apparent in Toscanini's January 1951 broadcast concert of Verdi's "Requiem." Having performed this music, this writer can attest that this is a recording to treasure. The soloists are outstanding (probably singing their best), the chorus is excellent, and the NBC Symphony plays as well as it ever did. The added excitement is in hearing a live performance, without any retakes, and the incredible drama and emotion of the music in Toscanini's hands.

Yes, Toscanini actually yells during the "Tuba mirum," as the brass blares its terrifying call, just before the chorus enters fortissimo. Was Toscanini urging on his performers? Certainly this is overwhelming music. My former choral director told us that Verdi wrote with a sense of fear as the approaching Day of Judgment, even if the composer notoriously despised organized religion. Did Verdi fear God's anger and judgment? He certainly had a healthy respect for divine providence and this performance displays that.

Some listeners complain that this is just another Verdi opera. It's true that it sounds a lot like "Aida," which was composed within a few years of this work. However, Verdi used the musical language he understood; there is a definite sense of drama throughout the music, even as he treats the traditional Latin text with great respect and even awe.

The performance took place on the 50th anniversary of Verdi's death, a date that Toscanini would long remember because of his close relationship with the composer. Toscanini was asked to lead the musical forces at Verdi's funeral in January 1901. By 1951, when this Carnegie Hall performance took place, Toscanini must have wondered how much time remained for him. He was to have some serious health problems during that year and his long-suffering wife, Carla, would finally pass on. Certainly, as the years had passed, the Requiem took on greater significance as a lasting memorial, not only for Verdi's friend Manzoni but for Verdi's own prestigious career.

The recurring setting of the "Dies Irae," the Day of Wrath or Day of Judgment, with its pounding bass drum characterizes this powerful music. The choral singing is particularly difficult at those times and the singers here are outstanding. The very challenging double chorus singing during the "Sanctus" is especially good with its lightning-speed precision. Yet there are also sensitive, even sweet, moments, culminating with the soprano's more hopeful singing during the "Lux aeterna" or "Eternal Light," leading finally to the "Libera me," in which the chorus joins in hushed tones. Herva Nelli seldom sang as well as she did in those closing moments. The music always has left this listener with a sense of peace, probably as Verdi intended.

This 1951 recording may have been surprassed by the later stereophonic recordings (especially by Sir Georg Solti), in which Verdi's spectacular use of brass and percussion are absolutely amazing, but this is a performance that is closer to Verdi's own intentions.

Near the very end of Toscanini's long career, he conducted Verdi's very last work, a setting of the traditional hymn "Te Deum." This took place on March 14, 1954, in an NBC concert which also included one of Vivaldi's concerto grossos and the prologue to Boito's "Mefistofele." It has long been said that this was the last great concert that the Maestro conducted because of his overwhelming emotions over his impending retirement and the abandonment of the NBC Symphony. Indeed, the two concerts that followed this one were not up to Toscanini's usual standards, which is particularly unfortunate because they were the only time that Toscanini and his orchestra were taped in stereo.

The Robert Shaw Chorale, which had sung so well in the Verdi "Requiem" three years earlier, shone particularly bright in Verdi's "Te Deum." The singers and the orchestra succeed briliantly during the many mood shifts of the music, as Verdi imaginatively scores the powerful text. What a wonderful, moving, and enjoyable performance!

Toscanini had a particular fondness for the music of the early Italian romantic composer Luigi Cherubini and this is quite apparent in his performances both of the "Requiem" and Cherubini's only symphony. The performance is from NBC Studio 8-H with exceptionally good sound.

A friend of mine listened to this CD and said: "Puff, it is hard to make a deconvolution between the trumpets and the rest of the orchestra"... That is, soloists are perfectly catched, but trumpets in Tuba Mirum fill everything and you cannot hear the chorus just in the beginning. Violins are hardly audible in some parts but, on the whole, it is a very, very great performance. First, you can make a comparative with famous Giulini's Requiem, stereo sound, and it is incredible to see that his Kyrie is slower than Tosca's, losing all the strength and frenzy environment that Tosca achieves. But, Giulini's goes revved up in Dies Irae, much more that Tosca's, and again loses enchantment. Tuba Mirum is much more the same tempo for both. Briefly, Tosca yields a more uniform performance than Giulini and that is why this performance catches you up with emotion and strength. It is sublime, pity for the mono and loudness of the trumpets. Regarding the soloists, Di Stefano is simply gorgeous. His top register is brilliant here, and his phrasing seductive as ever. But when you go to Hostias, it is "perfection". I have listened to it 20 times or more, incredible his singing there. In Giulini's, Pavarotti is sensational too, but Di Stefano is capable to touch the Heaven itself. The bass, Siepi, is attractive in all his register with his widened rich voice. Herva Nelli sounds like Callas, yes, in certain low tones, and, for the mezzo, Barbieri, compare to the Giulini's one in Kyrie. She is more "menacing and loose" when singing "Christe", ...

In summary, a great performance, that maybe, is the Reference.

An excellent remastering of the classic Toscanini performance! The recording sounds fresher and more alive than the original vinyl. Kudos to the engineers.

Dr. Juan V. De la Sierra
Sarasota FL

Arturo Toscanini (March 25, 1867 - January 16, 1957) was 83 when he recorded the 1951 Verdi Requiem. But despite its stellar lineup of soloists, a legendary choral group, and the acoustics of Carnegie Hall, many listeners consider it inferior to Toscanini's 1940 recording.

I have not heard the 1940 recording, so I cannot make the comparison. However, overall I was quite pleased with the work of the soloists. Herva Nelli has a powerhouse upper range. Fedora Barbieri is a wonderful Verdian. I particularly liked the way she skipped the crescendo in the "aeternum" in Lux Aeterna, so often forced by other mezzos. Giuseppe di Stefano sounds an awful lot like Placido Domingo in "Ingemisco" (or is it the other way around?). Cesare Siepi is simply stunning; his voice could move mountains!

The orchestra was quite brilliant. Fireworks were plentiful among the brass and percussion.

The major disappointment for me was the overall recorded sound of the Verdi Requiem. The orchestra and soloists were clearly overmiked, and the chorus was often drowned out by the brass. Many fortissimo passages were rather hard on the ears. The audience noise was also VERY irritating. Even the Tullio Serafin recording of the 1930s worked better for me.

But put on CD #2, and you enter a completely different world. The sound seemed far more agreeable, probably because of the nature of the repertoire.

The Cherubini Requiem in C Minor is a choral tour de force, and the Robert Shaw Chorale performed brilliantly. Even the oft-criticized acoustics of Studio 8-H could not detract from the impact of this overwhelming performance. With its Mozart-era orchestration, there was no problem of overbearing brass covering up the choristers.

The Te Deum (recorded in March 1954, just weeks before the memory lapse that ended Toscanini's public career) is memorable for its power and passion. The Chorale did not disappoint. The cameo soloist was not identified.

Despite my reservations about the recorded sound, I believe the spectacular work of the soloists and orchestra, plus the choral virtuosity of the second disc make this budget package a worthy addition to any library.

Text and translations included.

These coupled recordings, of choral works by Luigi Cherubini and Giuseppe Verdi to the same sacred liturgical text (along with Verdi's musical setting of the "Te Deum Laudamus"), are of the sort that any serious classical music lover "should" hear, but which, after that, probably best are relegated to lower rank and frequency of audition, for the sake of other, better recorded performances. Due to the great stature of Arturo Toscanini's conception of these works of Catholic sacred music, they really do belong, as well as other recorded interpretations of Cherubini's Requiem mentioned further on, in any faithful Catholic's (or other music lover's) sound recordings collection. Arturo Toscanini's conceptions of the works are noble and powerful, for what can be heard through the sonic dampers. Luigi Cherubini's Requiem Mass in C Minor, the more historically significant of the two recorded performances, especially suffers from the sound that the R.C.A. engineers captured poorly in recording Toscanini in these works (as in many others), but holds interest for the power and grandeur of his interpretation of that work.

Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842, so, who still thinks that all famous composers die young, or even middle-aged?) was a toweringly great figure of his times, which spanned long stretches of what in music history are referred to the Classical and Romantic eras. It is appropriate to couple his Requiem Mass in C Minor with the even more famed Missa Solemnis of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), his only somewhat younger contemporary, whom Cherubini greatly influenced, as Beethoven himself acknowledged on many occasions, even to the extent of once writing down that he considered Cherubini to be a composer whose works interested him more than his own compositions did (and Beethoven was far from lacking in self-esteem)! Thus, of the various issues of Cherubini's work, the one that B.M.G. released in harness with music by Beethoven, as in B.M.G.'s "Gold Seal" series, mentioned below, is particularly aptly paired. However, Cherubini's mighty funeral mass surely had much impact, too, on the musical imagination of Giuseppe Verdi, who adamantly insisted that his Italian countrymen respect their own musical past, thus justifying the pairing of Cherubini's C Minor Requiem with the later Italian master's own Requiem, as this B.M.G. "Red Seal" set has done so.

Cherubini was a faithful, practising Catholic all his long life. Even at the terrifying and quasi-atheistic height of the French Revolution (and Cherubini did spend most of his adult life in France), Cherubini nevertheless practised his outlawed and banned Catholic faith, as one of many of France's "underground Catholics". For example, Cherubini's wedding (to Anne Cécile Tourette, to whom he was always a faithful and very affectionate husband, the celebration of their union only repeated afterwards in a civally-contracted rite), was a secret underground Catholic ceremony, when Catholic marriage celebrations were outlawed by an officially unbelieving state (apart from France's own feeble, official, and pagan "civic religion"). Cherubini risked his life and personal freedom in carrying out his Catholic duties in this and other ways during such times!

On the other hand, Cherubini's intellect embraced both the liberal-secular as well as such Catholic aspects. Although he was resolutely Catholic, Cherubini also was among the avant-garde of socially forward-thinking, generous-minded intellectuals of his time. He even was fairly active in Freemasonry (as a number of other important yet pious Catholic composers, e.g. Joseph Haydn, were), and he was the composer who figured most prominently among the followers of the early socialist theorist, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, the illustrious Count of Saint-Simon (who was born in the same year, 1760, as Cherubini himself, but who died at a more usual age for men of his time, in 1825). The truth is NOT that Cherubini was the dourly arch-conservative (or downright reactionary) musician and Catholic that some of his biographers in English have depicted him to be (in essence, incorrecting projecting their own narrowly partisan views upon this composer), but that Cherubini was a Catholic composer of great musical innovation and originality whose mind also embraced and anticipated, well before that pope's reign later in the 19th century, the socially progressive ideas of Leo XIII.

Cherubini's composition of his first Requiem Mass, in C minor, to commemorate (at the of the brief Bourbon restoration) the overthrow and execution of the last Bourbon king near the beginning of the French Revolution which temporarily abolished monoarchy, was no sign that Cherubini was a reactionary; the overthow and then guillotining of Louis XVI had occurred as part of the long years of bloody, violent revolution and, under Napoléon (whom Cherubini dared to insult, even publicly, on several occasions), of imperial militaristic despotism. French citizens of many political persuasions, Cherubini included among them, felt relieved to see the end of these upheavals with the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (for the coronation of the two kings of which Cherubini composed his two Coronation Masses), in hopes that an era of limited monarchy, responsible to a reasonably democratic legislature, would ensue, to bring harmony to French political and social life. In the event, these hopes were realised only partially, with further changes of government rather shortly to ensue, but such was unforseen at the time that Cherubini composed this Requiem in 1816 (which premiered in 1817).

Cherubini's own daughter once described Cherubini as being a loyal and unfailingly practising Catholic layman, devout but of a broad mind, not narrow in his religious views (any more than he was in his wide-ranging, highly original musical style and in the moderate progressivism of his involvement in public life). How one could wish that there were more devout Catholic musicians like him in this 21st century!

Now, it is time to move on to the music and the recording(s) of it under review!

Of this 1950 recorded performance of Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor led by Toscanini there is an alternative (and earlier) R.C.A. reissue on CD (R.C.A. Victor/B.M.G. Classics 60272-2-RG, two CD set, in the two series, "Arturo Toscanini Collection", vol. 61, and "R.C.A. Victor Gold Seal") to this later and superior release (B.M.G. Classics 74321-72373-2, also a two CD set, in the numbered series, "Arturo Toscanini, the Immortal", vol. XI, and also in the unnumbered series "R.C.A. Red Seal"). The "Red Seal" release here under review couples Cherubini's work with Verdi's Requiem rather than, admittedly more appropriately, with Beethoven's grand mass, as in the "R.C.A. Victor Gold Seal" issue, as mentioned earlier. This "Red Seal" release, for all that, does have superior, more vivid, and smoother sound (although at powerful climaxes it still becomes harshly congested) compared to the "Gold Seal" edition, but the margin of difference is not really very considerable. Frankly, the worst flaw of the original analogue R.C.A. Victor recording, i.e. improper balance at many times between chorus and orchestra, as discussed shortly below, has not been remedied digitally in this improved "Red Seal" series reissue any more than it had been in that earlier issue in the "Gold Seal" series release.

There is also an edition of Toscanini's recorded performance in the "Past Classics" series, as a single "on-demand" CD or as a download, from CreateSpace in the U.S., or, more interestingly, in the U.K. available, in that same series of the same label (without the U. S. of A's excessively restrictive copyright-legal complications inherent in this sort of reissue) from Saland Music/Saland Publishing (SP-422). It comes packaged with a reproduction of the original graphics of the R.C.A. Victor LP record cover. It is, at any rate, competitive with the other two digital reissues and it provides the option, for buyers wishing to acquire Cherubini's C Minor Requiem alone, of purchasing a single CD (albeit one of rather short duration for that format) of only Cherubini's grandiose work, rather than having to confront choosing between sets of two CDs each pairing this masterpiece variously with another large-scale choral work.

The main problem of this recording of Cherubini's toweringly powerful funeral mass is that the orchestra sounds so excessively recessed that far too much of the orchestral detail of the Cherubini's masterful score is obscured or is not audible at all. That is a great pity, for the choral work, prepared under Robert Shaw's superb direction, is as fine as ever accorded this work on the many subsequent recordings of it and deserved to have been featured in a better balanced choral-orchestral perspective. Cherubini's orchestration of the C Minor Requiem Mass, as is true of all of his orchestral writing, is colourful and important to the work's musical development, so that when the work's orchestration is so inaudible as it is in Toscanini's recording, the impact of the work is considerably and grievously diminished; in the case of passages of contrapuntal interplay between the chorus and orchestra, the feebleness of the orchestra's contribution (due surely to musically insensitive recording engineering rather than to Toscanini himself) leads to seriously undermining Cherubini's compositional logic.

Toscanini's was the first complete recording of Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor, a powerful interpretation of it, too, but one which the sound thus cripples, ultimately, to a nearly unacceptable degree. Of later recordings, there is, above all, the 1961 Capitol LP (mono: P-8570; stereo: SP-8570) of the Roger Wagner Chorale's performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which another elusive LP issue of this recorded performance on the Angel (American E.M.I.) label at last mentioned that the conductor was Sir Malcolm Sargent, rather than Roger Wagner himself, as the Capital release indicates. Roger Wagner probably was only the very fine chorus master for Sargent, who conducts with the kind of terrific power and expertise that have made his various recordings of oratorios so highly celebrated. That recording, alas, has not yet been reissued yet on CD, although there is an Internet blog which has been providing a digital conversion of the recording to make available to those who avail themselves of that blog's service. Sargent's fine achievement, with the robust singing of the Roger Wagner Chorale, long has held sway as the best ever recording of Cherubini's work (one much more apt than Giulini's tepid 1952 E.M.I. recording).

By the 1980s recorded interpretations of real splendour and force that equal what Toscanini and Sir Malcolm Sargent/Roger Wagner had achieved began to appear. The most notable of these later recordings is that which Riccardo Muti conducts. Muti has proven to be an ardent and effective champion of this work and of others, too, among Cherubini's choral works. Muti has recorded not only Cherubini's C Minor Requiem (1980), but also the composer's lesser known (but quite extraordinary) second Requiem Mass, in D minor (1975), as well as other masses by Cherubini. Muti's recording of the C Minor Requiem itself has been reissued many times since its initial LP release. There have been several re-releases of it on CD; a "fun" way to acquire Muti's recording of Cherubini's first and best known Requiem (i.e., this one in C Minor) is by purchasing either of two dual-CD sets pairing it (as the "Red Seal" CD set thus had similarly paired it under Toscanini's leadership) with Muti also conducting Verdi's Requiem, E.M.I. Classics 7243-5-68613-2-9 (2 CDs, in series "Forte") or E.M.I. Classics 7243-5-86239-2-5 (2 CDs, in series "Gemini, the E.M.I. Treasures"). As for Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, there has been such a multitude of recordings to equal and many to surpass Toscanini's effort that it is pointless here to list them here. However, returning to the two Toscanini's sets from B.M.G., this "Red Seal" CD transfer and also the "Gold Seal" one, thus, are of a mono recording which is most valuable as an historical document of considerable importance (but one seriously flawed by improper balances) in the Cherubini renaissance which Toscanini helped to launch, but which Muti later propelled forward even more effectively.

Robert Shaw, whose choral direction in this work is so outstanding, also conducted Cherubini's C Minor Requiem at the commemoration, shortly after the event, of the 1970 deaths of students murdered by a contingent of U.S. Army Reservists which invaded Kent State University (in Kent, Ohio) and opened fire, at long range with telescopic lenses, on students and professors gathered on the other side of the campus. (This reviewer was a graduate student at K.S.U. during the period of the two terrible years of repression and vengeance there, so incompletely and inadequately reported by mass media outside of Kent or in monographs about the outrage.) The Kent musical forces are not of the same professional calibre (or maturity, especially the male voices) as Shaw's own eponymous choir, but the emotional intensity of the music in this rendition, particularly in soft and intimate passages, is heart-breakingly tender and memorable. Alas, the recording of that important live event's music (of better balanced sonics, despite the limitations of its live origin, than those heard on Toscanini's studio recording) only has been published as of this writing (late 2009) on LP, as a significant filler to M.R.F. Records' recording (MRF/C-02, in the label's "Cherubini Series") of a very satisfying Italian-language 1967 live performance of Cherubini's great opera, "Lodoiska" that Olivero de Fabritiis conducted. That now elderly release, among some others, makes a fine LP supplement to Muti's CD recording of the C Minor Requiem Mass. Find it, if the reader can, and enjoy it, as a better complementary issue than even Toscanini's recording can serve, to later analogue and digital recordings such as that, most notably, of Muti.

These two CDs were all and more than I anticipated. I felt fortunate to find the sealed product with all the requirements I wanted i.e. Orchestra, Conductor, musical work & participating artists. Costs were fair, including shipping.