Looking over the lineup for this production, you wonder, without an Italian within earshot (save for the orchestra and chorus), will the remarkable combination of echt-piety and Italian opera that inhabits Verdi’s Requiem be well served? Indeed it is—and it may just be a matter of how superbly the notes are played and sung, with all of Verdi’s very challenging dynamic markings observed (from ppppp to fffff) and every participant on top form. If there is a criticism, it’s that the recording, made during a couple of performances in August, 2012, has been so fiercely digitized that the whole event occasionally sounds like a hi-def football game looks—i.e: slightly artificial. You get over it, even as you wonder how the solo voices and players manage to pop out of the dense fabric.
Anja Harteros is a lovely soprano soloist, singing with authority and fine, spinto tone; Elina Garanca, freed from having to create a character on stage, uses her warm, beautiful tone (the lower octave sounding particularly ripe) with ease and a wise ability to blend with the others; Jonas Kaufmann sings with long breath and a tensile strength alternating with tenderness (his “Hostias” is particularly glorious); and Rene Pape, save for a few grainy spots, uses his bass voice handsomely and dramatically.
Daniel Barenboim goes for extremes of mood and volume and makes them all effective, although I bet that due to the recording you won’t be able to hear the first few bars of the work. The huge moments—the Dies Irae and climax to the Libera me—are spectacular. This is a Verdi Requiem to give great pleasure, but you first should own either the recent Pappano-led performance (also with Harteros and Pape, plus the fantastic Rolando Villazon) on EMI, or the staggering, big, supra-operatic Solti (yes—Sutherland, Horne, Pavarotti, and Talvela) also on Decca.
