Customer Reviews

Respighi: Laud to the Nativity; Monteverdi: Magnificat

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One Christmas many years ago I was experiencing a period in my life when things were going very poorly ---and it looked as if the holiday season was going to be a bleak one. Fortunately,I had managed to acquire a reel-to-reel tape of this recording of the Respighi "Laud"; in the weeks before Christmas I began to play it nightly--sometimes 2 or 3 times---alone (with headphones) in my upstairs room in the dark except for a tiny string of Christmas lights and the glow from the stereo control panel. And thanks to this nightly "ritual", that Christmas remains one of the most moving and emotional of any in my adult life.

And that's the power of this music. If pressed, I would have to name the Respighi "Laud" as the most purely BEAUTIFUL work of music that I know; I have waited for nearly 20 years in the hope that we would see THIS PARTICULAR recording preserved on CD---and here it is AT LAST!

And the wait was worth it---the sound is stunning! Tha amount of warmth, presence, and detail captured by EMI/Capitol in 1961 is astounding, and you hear EVERY bit of it in this first-rate transfer.

The performance is so incredibly lovely that it almost defies description. Suffice to say that the singing of the Roger Wagner Chorale, with its amazing range of color---especially its lighter, mezza-voce tone---is largely responsible for the serene and radiant quality of this performance. I am certain that some of the singers in the Chorale on this recording (especially the male voices) were also active in other fine choral groups that recorded during the late '50s-early 60's, when many excellent, legitimate Christmas records were being released. (The best of them in my opinion was a 1957 album by The Jack Halloran Singers on the DOT label, which has been a staple in my family since 1959---and the similarity in sound of that chorus to the Wagner Chorale is definitely one of the reasons why I respond so strongly to this recording of the Respighi).

The solo singing is fine, the chief attraction for collectors being an early appearance by Marilyn Horne. Soprano Marie Gibson as the angel sings with a lovely, limpid tone that soars and floats beautifully when required (I met Miss Gibson in the early 90's in Chicago when she served as a judge for the MET regional auditions; I raved about her recording of the "Laud"---and she was thrilled to be recognized and remembered for it).

True, conductor Alfred Wallenstein could have lingered a bit more here and there....his performance is definitely more brisk than any other that I have heard....but the gentle, airy, pastorale elegance and grace of the choral singing conveys an exquisite sense of joy, which many of the heavier and more lethargic performances that have been available totally miss. The quick tempo "GLORIA" section near the end is VERY fast indeed, but the agility and precision of Wagner's singers pull it off brilliantly. The following chorale ("To save the world from sin..")
is sung with a lightness, warmth and child-like simplicity that matches the music perfectly, while the final hushed, mysterious "Amens" will leave you in awe of this sublime performance.

A true CLASSIC, one of the real treasures of recorded music.

I love Christmas Music. Not just the Bing Crosby "White Christmas" and the Andy Williams "Happy Holidays", but the classical music genre that truly portrays the Birth of Christ.(What Christmas is really about before Santa Claus).

Respighi's music begins quietly with a lovely shepard-like melody, and ends the some way also. The message--this is a birth of a simple man, just like you and me, and who's life is just as important as yours and mine. No Hallejujah Choruses, just beautiful music.

If you want a different feel to the Christmas feeling, listen to this work. You will be pleased.

Just to mentioned other classical works that involve Christmas abd great, great music.

1) Ralph Vaughan Williams-A Fantasy on Christmas Carols
2) Honegger-A Christmas Cantata
3) Hely-Hutchinson-A Carol Symphony. Try the new NAXOS
recording. Great other selections also!

Enjoy!

I believe this is the only English version recording available currently. It is very well done.

When it comes to Christmas and classical music, two works come instantly to mind: George Frideric Handel's beloved sacred oratorio "Messiah"; and Peter Tchaikovsky's timeless ballet "Nutcracker." Over time, however, once obscure or lesser-known works have emerged to take a place in the Christmas classical repertoire, some very large (Bach's Christmas Oratorio), and some more intimate (Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Amahl And The Night Visitors").

And then there's Ottorino Respighi.

His 1930 composition "Laud To The Nativity" is perhaps as compact a telling of the birth of Jesus as one could want. It is a quiet cantata scored for three solo voices, choir, piano four-hands, and a woodwind orchestra; and given the composer's reputation for large-scale orchestration that evidences itself in his Roman Triptych, this is a fairly intimate work, and only 22 minutes long. Then again, the event it depicts is as intimate, solemn, and epochal as is possible. Respighi's work is combined with Claudio Monteverdi's setting of the Magnificat on this Clarion recording, originally released fifty years ago on Capitol/EMI.

For this work, Roger Wagner, one of America's most prominent choral conductors, leads his chorale, which became the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964, along with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra led by Alfred Wallenstein, who had been the orchestra's official music director from 1943 to 1956. They, along with vocal soloists Charles Bressler, Marie Gibson, and a young Marilyn Horne, bring out the most in Respighi's telling of the Nativity; and their rendering of the Monteverdi Magnificat is equally stunning.

It is a great thing to have this classic 1961 recording specially preserved on compact disc for Christmas; and we owe it to Roger Wagner, his chorale, the L.A. Philharmonic, and Alfred Wallenstein for bringing these works out of the shadows and giving them a place in the Christmas repertoire. Anyone wanting to add to their Christmas music repertoire really should snap this recording up without hesitation.

My aunt wanted this CD for her birthday. She says it prepares her heart for Christmas like nothing else can. Hightly recommended.