Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hugely Dramatic Requiem, 23 Sep 2008
Friscay was DG's star conductor before the advent of Karajan and the former's untimely death. Despite sonic limitations this requiem is white hot from start to finish. Soloists all acquit themselves superbly. What a musical singer Stader makes despite a smaller than usual voice in the part. On one disc this memorable performance is a bargain, although a pity stereo wasn't available.
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14 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review:- Verdi requiem, 20 Dec 2003
This is a wonderful recording of a wonderful piece. However,
having said that, I must point out some downsides.This recording is a remastered copy of an LP. This will
virtually never be of as good quality as straight onto CD. The
sound quality is not always brilliant. Dynamic range is huge. This presents the very unfortunate
problem that, falling asleep with this playing, one turns the
volume right up to hear the opening, and, having already fallen
asleep before the Dies Irae, often wakes up rather startled,
and somewhat deafer than before. Obviously, too many times
fallen asleep and this becomes less of a problem. As far as intonation goes, in places a little is left to be
desired. Not always a problem though. This recording certainly has its advantages. Musically, this
is a masterpiece. And considering its price, especially in comparison to the
others I was considering, one falls even deeper in love. Not the best recording I have ever listened to, but certainly
the best around if you're not looking to spend a fortune.
Recommended.
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6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A firestorm leaping from earth to sky, rates five galaxies, 17 Oct 2007
There are times when you need a good requiem; this one is beyond great.
I've heard Verdi's Requiem a number of times, conducted by Serafin, Toscanini, and de Sabata, on vintage vinyl, but couldn't sustain much interest. Most reviewers think Fricsay is in their league, or close, but in fact he's the one that finally got my full attention riveted on this music. They've all had 50+ years of praises, quibbles, adjectives, and comparisons, but sometimes such weighing and measuring and judging misses the real point.
If you don't get this point, don't worry, it'll get you soon enough. You might be just looking to add one more well-chosen disc to your collection, stick it in a machine, sit back, enjoy, and congratulate yourself for making another fine purchase you won't regret. Buy this one. What matters is that you'll never throw it out, so you'll have it on hand when the time comes (as it will) when you really need this, only this, and nothing else.
When a requiem needs to serve its intended purpose (when most music and people seem dim, flat and woefully inadequate), no merely great performance will do. What you need then is to immolate your mind in a celestial conflagration.
This performance resolves the old debate about whether the piece should be approached dramatically or religiously. Fricsay does both at once. He shows more "true grit" than any cowboy as he rides the music like a rodeo bull -- but at the same he lets the music soar free as a flock of angels flying home at the end of the day. (What? Both at once? Yeah! Fricsay makes it seem effortless even if my words don't.)
This performance is earthy without being earthbound. It's been called refreshingly secular. But then who knows what music God would choose for Himself -- or for us, if He finds us poking around the net looking for something to hear while remembering the dead? We do know that Verdi understood exactly why he was writing his Requiem (not just to jazz up a celebrity funeral; his own wife and kids had burned to death), and Fricsay drives the point home, even if we don't quite get it before we need to. If their music is too full of life, without quite enough otherworldly consolation, maybe it's because their God prefers real life, with all its fiery drama, to the timeless spirit world. Maybe that's the point, and not just the point of this CD. Forgive me if I haven't included the requisite quibbles and comparisons. I think Requiems play by different rules.
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~ Claude Debussy
~ Johann Sebastian Bach
~ Richard Strauss
~ Herbie Hancock
