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Gramophone, November 2013 |
Mike Ashman |
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Verdi, Messa da Requiem |
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Barenboim's Requiem live from two Milan concerts |
Barenboim
has made a habit of achieving what others just talk of — whether
it's giving the entry of Wagner's Rheingold gods into Valhalla a
genuinely pompous hollow ring or, as here, making music drama
out of the score that Hans von Billow dismissed as 'opera in
church costume'. Despite the presence of the Italian chorus and
orchestra — both on committed good form — of the conductor's own
house, this performance, exciting and occasionally thrilling
though it is, is not remotely Italian. From that slurred opening
string descent onwards, Barenboim is going somewhere else —
towards a drama in which tempi are governed exclusively by
atmosphere. It's a 'through-composed' linked-up performance,
paced with a dramatic curve that makes even the punchiest
Italian-led ones — Muti's watershed moment with the Philharmonia
(Warner) plus the seven or so Toscaninis (numerous labels) —
feel like number opera missing the dialogue in between. One
could fairly describe the score's expressive markings here as
treated symphonically rather than vocally but the
pianist/conductor brings them off with his own conviction.
The non-Italian soloists are in good fearless voice and
aurally well integrated into this concept. Kaufmann's robusto
Italian seems more fully realised than some of his Italian aria
recordings. Pape feels very comfortable with emotion on the
concert stage. Garanca makes much of the mezzo's beau role and
sounds well with Harteros in the 'Recordare'. Since the Solti
Vienna performance first blew Giulini (technically) off the
racks at the end of the 1960s, Decca has been good at recording
this work and they haven't got worse over the years. In the
first LP era the clash on record was between the RCA Toscanini
(now best on Pristine), one-time EMI's first Giulini (but,
sadly, it's never sounded good) and the first Solti (brave and
bold, starrily cast, loud sound). Since then the competition has
reached almost ridiculous proportions. I couldn't live without
that first Muti and at least three Toscaninis (BBC Testament,
Scala and RCA) but I'd smuggle in the present newcomer alongside
Sold for its cast and Barenboim's line through the piece.
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