VERDI, G.: Messa da Requiem (Maazel)
Soloist:
Fantini, Norma
Soloist:
Meli, Francesco
Soloist:
Siwek, Rafal
Soloist:
Smirnova, Anna
Choir:
Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Chorus
Orchestra:
Symphonica Toscanini
Conductor:
Maazel, Lorin
Composer:
Verdi, Giuseppe
Messa da Requiem
Venue: Basilica di San Marco, Venice
Date of Concert: 2007
Playing Time: 01:36:08
Television Director:
Mancini, Tiziano
Catalogue Number: A00008689
Celebrated conductor Lorin Maazel, a young orchestra of outstanding musicians, four high-caliber soloists and one of the great choral works of musical literature – this alone would make this live recording of Verdi's Requiem a stand-out document of filmed music. But there is more: the venue of this grandiose performance is the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, with its shimmering golden Byzantine mosaics framed by mighty pillars and arches. Modeled on Constantine the Great's Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, the 11th-century basilica has been the workplace of many a great musician in the past, such as Claudio Monteverdi, Adrian Willaert and Giovanni Gabrieli.
Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is also the Music Director of the Symphonica Toscanini, a young orchestra founded in May 2006 that has performed under Zubin Mehta, Georges Prêtre and Kurt Masur. "In recent tours of Europe and the U.S., the musicians expressed their unique musical potential by playing so harmoniously and compellingly as a group that they conquered every audience," said Maazel. The recording also features distinguished soloists Norma Fantini, soprano; the young Anna Smirnova, mezzo-soprano; Francesco Meli, tenor; and Rafal Siwek, bass. The Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino supplies a masterfully nuanced vocal support.
When the great Italian author Alessandro Manzoni died in 1873, Giuseppe Verdi expressed the wish to write a Requiem mass in his honor. The work was premiered in Milan in May 1874, on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. The Requiem is emotionally intense, highly dramatic, often lyrical, sometimes blatantly operatic, and always melodiously captivating – qualities that are heightened here by the grandeur of the Basilica of San Marco.
