Four Sacred Pieces

[tomseeley]

In my humble opinion, Verdi's Four Sacred Pieces is (are?) about as good as choral writing can get!

I heard Margaret Hillis lead the Chicago Symphony Chorus do them live years ago, and of course it was simply marvelous!

I have one fairly decent recording of them, but it's a big chorus and I'm kinda partial to smaller groups.  Although given the size of the orchestra you need to do these right, I'm not sure what "smaller" would be, ideally, in this case!

I'd like recommendations please for a good version to track down and buy.  Thx.

[Larry Rinkel]

In my humble opinion, Verdi's Four Sacred Pieces is (are?) about as good as choral writing can get!

I heard Margaret Hillis lead the Chicago Symphony Chorus do them live years ago, and of course it was simply marvelous!

I have one fairly decent recording of them, but it's a big chorus and I'm kinda partial to smaller groups.  Although given the size of the orchestra you need to do these right, I'm not sure what "smaller" would be, ideally, in this case!

I'd like recommendations please for a good version to track down and buy.  Thx.

Wish I could give you all four. But the Toscanini Te Deum is blazing, a classic rendition.

[Holden]

There are other versions of this same recording out there, I just chose this one at random. Very hard to beat Fricsay in this repertoire even if it's a mono recording.

[Tsaraslondon]

Giulini's version (with Janet Baker no less as soloist) is coupled to his recording of the Requiem and is still available on EMI's Great Recordings of the Century series. Both performances are well worth owning.

[tomseeley]

Interesting recommendation for the Fricsay.  That's the one I have.  It's ok, IMO, but I found some of the sound a bit mushy (my own term; not a musical one) and some of the attacks a little imprecise.  But overall the power of the big pieces definitely comes through.  The flow of some of Verdi's long lines are sung so well it's as if there were no bar lines; just one long single measure of melody!  I just wonder (I haven't checked the liner notes) how large a chorus he was using.  Certainly the orchestra is a Verdi orchestra, for whatever that means! 

Additional ideas still most welcome

[Larry Rinkel]

Interesting recommendation for the Fricsay.  That's the one I have.  It's ok, IMO, but I found some of the sound a bit mushy (my own term; not a musical one) and some of the attacks a little imprecise.  But overall the power of the big pieces definitely comes through.  The flow of some of Verdi's long lines are sung so well it's as if there were no bar lines; just one long single measure of melody!  I just wonder (I haven't checked the liner notes) how large a chorus he was using.  Certainly the orchestra is a Verdi orchestra, for whatever that means! 

Additional ideas still most welcome

Toscanini conducted the first performance, and got it from the source. In his earlier performances he used choruses of 200, so I don't quite understand the concern with chorus size. At any rate, that performance is a must-have in my opinion if you want to hear what can be done with this piece. Nothing mushy or imprecise here.

[Wendell_E]

FWIW, Gardiner's "original instrument" recording on Philips uses a 69-voice choir (if I counted right.  They're listed individually in the booklet).  It's the filler for his recording of the Requiem, which uses a similar-sized chorus (I counted 70).

[knight66]

I am not sure what a smaller chorus gets you here; as there are moments you need a pretty massive sound and hushed singing from a large well trained body of singers is much different from piano or pp singing from a small choir to produce the same volume. A large choir really holding back is not just quiet, it is very exciting.

I have sung these several times, once with Giulini. He used the full 250 of us. For recordings, there is an excellent Muti, Shaw provides a good performance and perhaps surprising to some here, Solti provides, light and shade in his recording which has Margaret Hillis' own choir to play with.

Mike

[val]

I prefer the version of Muti, with Arleen Auger (EMI).

[tomseeley]

Continuing to expand on my original thought---I'm not sure what a "small" chorus gets you with this work, either, as one of you pondered.  Given the size of the orchestra you'd need, and all.  It's just my personal preference to hear some clarity and distinction between the voices (parts) that prompted my original post.  See, for example, my similar request re Bach's B Minor, which I definitely would prefer to hear with fewer than a bazillion singers on each part.  But how many fewer?  Hey! Who knows!  Like a Supreme Court justice said once, in an ENTIRELY different context, I'll know it when I [hear] it!

As for your suggestions, thank you one and all!

[Hector]

I prefer the version of Muti, with Arleen Auger (EMI).

I had this on LP but would you want to hear these all that often?