Verdi: Requiem

Available for over a year

Flora Willson considers the available versions of Verdi's Requiem. Verdi was an anti-Papist, and a rationalist with very little time for the Roman Catholic Church. But the words of the Requiem ignited his imagination. Written in the same white-hot musical language he used for his great operatic melodramas, Verdi brings to life the dramatic text of the Requiem Mass with apocalyptic visions of the last judgement and ethereal evocations of a celestial paradise. Top Recommendation: Orchestra e Coro dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano with the voices of Anja Harteros, Sonia Ganassi, Rolando Villazón, René Pape EMI, CD: 6989362 (DOUBLE CD MID PRICE)