Verdi: Messa da Requiem [Box set]

Gergiev certainly has a sense of drama that becomes a magnificent piece like the Verdi Requiem. The tempi and dynamics provides the right setting for the words. For instance the bass drum in Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum sounds like an artillery cannon and it makes my hear skip a beat no matter how many times I hear this part of the recording... Marvellous... Other conductors take note. Trumpets are clear and distinct makin the triplets stand out intense and insisting. And I could go on about the opening cello melody and so on and so on.
Unfortunately the choir doesn't deliver clear diction, so the text is inaudible all the way through. Their intonation is unclear as well, making it impossible as to guess which note the basses are singing on "Te decet hymnus". The only good thing about the choir is the size and ability to sing an unrestrained fortissimo in the places where needed.

The soloists, however, should have been left out of this production with the exception of the russian mezzo. Worst of all is Bocelli. Whenever the tenor part reaches the high g (which happens a lot in Verdi, not just the Requiem), Bocelli starts to sound weak and gets sort of a whimpering quality in his voice. His intonation goes all out of sync, and his rendition of the greatest sacred tenor aria of all time, Ingemisco, quite frankly made me laugh. Fleming is uninspired and D'Arcangelo sound woobly and unclear.

I will mention Fritz Reiners recording of 1959, in which Leontyne Price deliver true Verdian drama along with sacred adoration, Giorgio Tozzi sounds like an Avenging Angel in person in Confutatis and last but certainly not least (and this reason I bought the Reiner recording), Jussi Björling, which nearly drowns out the orchestra in sheer power and glory on the high B in Ingemisco. The Wiener Singverein also makes a much better choir than the Kirov, but Reiners orchestra (Wiener Philharmoniker) and reading in general is a bit dull in comparison, so if one could take the orchestra, conductor and mezzo-soprano of the Kirov recording, and the other soloists and choir of the 1959 recording, it would be the greatest recording ever of Verdis Requiem. Until technology makes it possible, buy both or, if you must, get this one and skip over the solo passages until you can afford to buy Fritz Reiner et al.

Can a Russian orchestra and chorus, even one as demonstrably seasoned and virtuosic as the Kirov, do Verdi? Especially, this Verdi, the Manzoni Requiem?

Questions flutter in one's mind about the singers. Renee Fleming is renowned for her vocal beauty, and for her musical intelligence, most of the time. But her voice is not the heavier, dramatic soprano that has come to be the usual norm for singing this requiem.

The Russian mezzosoprano is the redoubtable Olga Borodina, a super star in her own right. But will she be one of the few stand-outs in an otherwise mis-matched set?

The tenor is Andrea Bocelli. His star status is a result of selling so-called cross-over music, disc after disc after disc. But managing an appealing diet of Italian songs, popularly arranged music made famous in television advertising for hotels and for wines, and releasing the occasional opera aria CD do not automatically add up to being able to succeed as tenor in the Verdi Requiem.

The bass singer is Ildebrando D'Arcangelo. Can he succeed in the basso depths that the Verdi Requiem requires?

Well, sooner or later you have to open the wrapper and listen.

The sheer range and sound staging offered up by the DVD-audio version in multi-channel configuration is absolutely stunning. Higher resolution can capture both the immense volumes of the orchestra and tonal individualities. Even those fearsome bass drum whacks in the Dies Irae don't obliterate the rest. Soloists float.

Andrea Bocelli opens the solo entries in a forthright and confidant manner. His voice copes extremely well with the wide vocal ranges Verdi writes into this tenor part. He sings very well, softly, in high-lying vocal passages. At the top of his range, Bocelli always conveys that quintessential sense of precious, gleaming metal. Bocelli is very plain in his phrasing. He sings in tune, no extravagant flourishes or exaggerations. By the end of the requiem, it is difficult not to conclude that this very directness and simplicity serves the music very well. You may fear at some lyrical moments that Mr. Bocelli will fall all the way down, into pop crooning the music; in fact he actually never does so. Sometimes he achieves a silvery sweetness of fluid tone that had this listener thinking all the way back to the great Giuseppe di Stefano for an adequate comparison. You need not fear Andrea Bocelli, then.

Olga Borodina carries off her part with supreme aplomb. She can manage the incredible range that Verdi demands of this part, without the slightest hint of difficulty. She leads well in those moments when she is first. She follows very well in those moments when she is a second or third entry behind another soloist.

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo has a bit more of a baritone's tone. Still, given his basic vocal personality, Mr. D'Arcangelo covers himself with laurels. He can growl or pray or supplicate with the best of them.

Well then, what of Renee Fleming? She does, indeed, have a lighter voice than we have come to expect for sopranos who successfully attempt the Verdi Requiem nowadays. And given her voice, it would be all too easy for her to be scrambling to balance herself with the other singers, or with the orchestra, or with the chorus. However, perhaps thanks to some apt miking, she is quite grand and quite lovely throughout. Ever so intelligently, she uses her phrasing and her tonal colors to suggest musical points made on the basis of sheer volume by those other sopranos whose voices are heavier. And after a while, you tend to forget that heavier voices are the tradition. Her breath control is solid, allowing her to spin out long lines when Verdi asks for it, and she reveals her involvement with the text, always. The sheer, constant beauty of her voice in all its ranges does her interpretation no harm, especially when one recalls that those traditional Verdi sopranos sometimes had large, heavy voices that only infrequently might also have been called, beautiful.

Further, some mention must be made of the total musical genius with which this quartet of singers manages to blend. Given their disparate individual stardoms, and separate musical identities; it is not a forgone conclusion that they could become the kind of vocal quartet which is so necessary to the overall success of this music. Be surprised, then. Their harmony and inflection as a quartet is exemplary. They blend deftly, and exquisitely. They gather enough weight, enough tonal heft that you can always hear the harmony Verdi has written into the quartet or duo or trio sections. And hearing Verdi's harmony is key to hearing Verdi. It is not just all big lines and solo star turns. This kind of ensemble singing could serve as a noteworthy example to other future casts who might think about attempting the Verdi Requiem, and other Verdi as well.

Led by Valery Gergiev, the Kirov musicians and chorus are brilliant, soulful, and absolutely rock solid. Each section of the orchestra plays well, and nobody is less than praiseworthy. The chorus also rises to the heights. Their sound is just a bit darker, more Slavic; but they sing with a passion for precision and phrasing that seems unanimously put to thrilling musical purpose.

In summary, then. If you are looking for a DVD-audio music demonstration disc, this one will do very nicely. Compared to the CD, which did offer quite respectable sound, this DVD-audio disc offers an even higher level of reproduction. With releases like this one, not to mention that Mahler Eighth Symphony the label also released in DVD-audio some time back, the medium is more and more showing off its potentials as a music medium.

Highly recommended. Five star, Six stars.