Verdi: Four Sacred Pieces & Hymn of the Nations

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The Hymn of the Nations was the Italian musical contribution to the London International Exhibition of 1862...Under Gianandrea Noseda's alert baton, it registers well here...[Barbara Frittoli]... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2011, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Feb 2011
Catalogue No: CHAN10659
Label: Chandos
Length: 70 minutes

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Verdi: Inno delle nazioni (Hymn of the Nations)

Work length12:46

$2.15

$2.60

Gianandrea Noseda, Orchestra of Teatro Regio, Turin, Francesco Meli, Barbara Frittoli, Chorus of Teatro Regio, Turin

Verdi: Messa per Rossini: Libera me, Domine

Work length12:59

$2.15

$2.60

Gianandrea Noseda, Orchestra of Teatro Regio, Turin, Francesco Meli, Barbara Frittoli, Chorus of Teatro Regio, Turin

Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri

Work length41:17

Album only

Gianandrea Noseda, Orchestra of Teatro Regio, Turin, Francesco Meli, Barbara Frittoli, Chorus of Teatro Regio, Turin

I. Ave Maria

Track length5:41

$1.05

$1.30

II. Stabat Mater

Track length13:25

$2.15

$2.60

III. Laudi alla Vergine Maria (After Dante 's Paradiso, Final Canto)

Track length6:08

$1.05

$1.30

IV. Te Deum

Track length16:03

Album only

Verdi: La Forza del Destino, Act II: La vergine degli angeli

Work length3:32

$1.05

$1.30

Gianandrea Noseda, Orchestra of Teatro Regio, Turin, Francesco Meli, Barbara Frittoli, Chorus of Teatro Regio, Turin

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This is a recording of rarely heard choral works by Verdi, performed by all-Italian forces – the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatre Regio in Turin, with the soloists Barbara Frittoli and Francesco Meli, under the conductor Gianandrea Noseda, an exclusive Chandos artist – for totally idiomatic results.

The opera La forza del destino was first performed in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St Petersburg in 1862. Featured on this recording is ‘La vergine degli angeli’, the chorus that ends Act III. Here Leonora (whom everyone supposes to be a man) is sent by the Monastery of Hornachuelos to live in a hermit’s cave for the rest of her life. The monks invoke the Virgin to protect the new hermit and send Leonora off with one of Verdi’s most beautiful choruses (which also features an exquisite solo for Leonora).

Soon after completing La forza del destino, Verdi was asked to prepare an Italian entry for the London International Exhibition. He agreed, and the result was the Inno delle nazioni, to words by Arrigo Boito. The piece ultimately did not figure in the official celebrations, but was performed to great acclaim in London in 1862. The work includes an orchestral introduction and a chorus, an impassioned recitation by the soloist, and a beautiful melody for soloist, then chorus. Verdi cites the national anthems of England, France, and Italy, before combining them in a contrapuntal tour de force.

With the death in 1868 of Gioachino Rossini, Verdi took it upon himself to commission all the most important composers of Italy to prepare a composite Mass in his memory. The mass was to be performed on the first anniversary of Rossini’s death, but when the city of Bologna proved unable to arrange the performance in time, the project was abandoned. Verdi, however, persevered and did complete the intended final movement, ‘Libera me, Domine’, recorded here. He would rework the movement for his later Messa da Requiem.

Completing the disc are the Quattro pezzi sacri (Four Sacred Pieces): Ave Maria, Laudi alla Vergine Maria, Stabat Mater, and Te Deum. The two choruses with full orchestra, the Stabat Mater and Te Deum, Verdi’s last compositions, are based on well-known poems. The first, celebrating Mary as she stands by the Cross, was set by many composers. For the Te Deum, written for double chorus, Verdi turned to a text often, though not here, used to celebrate victories and coronations. It quickly became common practice to perform the four pieces together, with a chorus singing the unaccompanied, but moving, Ave Maria and Laudi alla Vergine Maria, originally composed for solo voices.

Reviews

June 2011

The Hymn of the Nations was the Italian musical contribution to the London International Exhibition of 1862...Under Gianandrea Noseda's alert baton, it registers well here...[Barbara Frittoli] provides an ethereal close to the Te Deum, last of the Four Sacred Pieces - visionary, distilled examples of Verdi's late style whose mystery Noseda presents with considerable sensitivity.

May 2011

the Teatro Regio forces (under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda) deliver them with a bold sense of drama. The soloists are top-drawer Verdians too: tenor Francesco Meli has an impressively ringing top register, and Barbara Frittoli bring weight, richness and sensitive phrasing to the soprano solos.

May 2011

it comes as a shock (albeit a pleasantly fascinating one) to hear Verdi's rather disjointed initial thoughts for the piece...though [his] contrapuntal acrobatics in the "Libera me" fugue continue to delight and amaze, and his orchestration fizzes with its characterful vigour and colourfulness...this performance lacks nothing in terms of forward momentum or choral declamation.

April 2011

It is temperament rather than smoothness in her singing that Frittoli brings, and it is interesting to hear the differences between this version and Verdi's later one...Gianandrea Noseda and Turin Opera's chorus master Robert Gabbiani do well to bring out the contrasts from their respective charges.

8th April 2011

Francesco Meli and Barbara Frittoli, with her wide and warm vibrato, give performances of great energy and directness. Look out for a fascinating filler, Inno delle nazioni, which is a strangely wonderful “mash-up” of English, French and Italian national anthems.

Offer,Verdi: Four Sacred Pieces & Hymn of the Nations

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