Myung-Whun Chung’s big, dramatic reading of Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces is greatly aided by the wonderfully solid and rich sound of the Santa Cecilia Chorus, which maintains its beautiful tonal luster in both the quiet, prayerful passages and the all-encompassing tuttis. Deutsche Grammophon’s recording, with its wide dynamic range, clarity, and presence allows the enormity of Chung’s vision to be faithfully replicated in your listening space. That said, Zubin Mehta conducts a significantly more incisive reading with his Los Angeles forces on a Decca Legends release (coupled with the Fritz Reiner-led Requiem). In the Te Deum especially, Mehta (and also Gardiner on Philips) infuses the religious texts with a Verdian fire noticeably absent from Chung’s more devotional rendering.
The 1880 Ave Maria (separated from its companion work, the Pater noster), and the plaintive Ave Maria from Otello are both beautifully sung by Carmela Remigio. That said, Remigio doesn’t quite have the requisite steel in her tone for the declamatory Libera me, Domine from the Messa per Rossini (and later revised for the Requiem Mass for Manzoni). Even in this early incarnation, tremendous demands are made on the soprano soloist, demands that Remigio meets with convincing passion if not the enthralling sounds of such Requiem luminaries as Leontyne Price and Joan Sutherland. The members of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra do themselves proud in their countryman’s music, playing with power and shining tone. Overall, then, this unique collection turns out to be one of more interesting offerings for the Verdi Centennial and a solid if not ideal representation of these infrequently heard works.
