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September 5, 2008 - 2:25pm
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Verdi's Requiem - CSO
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Well, it is a "Requiem" ... it's not exactly dance music!
I know the work well and recently heard it live in Orchestra Hall in Detroit, performed by several combined groups from Oakland University. (It was a fantastic university-level performance in a stunning hall.)
It is an amazing piece, dynamic and colorful. Yes, it is deep and dark, but it is supposed to be. I strongly recommend attending - I am sure the CSO performance will be TOP NOTCH and I bet you will like it live. In a work such as this, there can be a real impact from the huge mass of performers on stage to the audience.
Though we tend to invest our time and resources into our Hi-Fi stuff that will as-closely-as-possible reproduce the live experience, it is my humble opinion that most equipment can't quite stand up to, say, 300 performers on one stage.
Like Orff's Carmina Burana or Mahler's Eighth Symphony, it is a big undertaking to produce, with full orchestra, massed chorus, and soloists, so it is not available live all that often. Catch it if you can.
Don
Alan, I get what you're saying. Although I was a lover of classical music, getting into opera & vocal music was like getting into a different world. Definitely an acquired taste (which becomes an obsession later.)
Do you have your DVD player hooked up to your TV sound system? If so, I'd like to recommend the Verdi Requiem performed by Claudio Abbado. Perhaps watching it will help turn the tide. Verdi's Requiem is a magnificent work; it won't be as attention-grabbing or festive as some other works, but if you saw it in a concert, it will be a different experience. Kind of like opera? It wasn't until I'd actually attended an opera that I got into listening to opera on disc.
Anyway, here's the link. If you have Netflix, just rent it, man.
http://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Gheorghiu-Barcellona-Konstantinov-Philharmonic/dp/B000066C6K
Ive been listening to the album a bit more and im beginning to warm to the whole thing.
These are the various artists for the peice, im curious as their pecking orders in respective fields, any insight would be great.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Barbara Frittoli, soprano
Olga Borodina, mezzo-soprano
Mario Zeffiri, tenor
Ildar Abdrazakov, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, conductor
Thanks
Alan
Muti. Demanding. Angela Gheorghiu calls him a dictator.
Frittoli-lovely tone, but often fluttery and wide vibrato, at this point in her career tending toward stridency at the very top (at least the night I heard her a month or so ago).
Borodina-gorgeous rich full voice. Magnificent. I've heard her from the second row, and been overwhelmed.
Zeffiri-don't know
Abdrazakov-Borodina's husband. Fabulous.
Hope that helps.
jason