# 1951 Verdi Requiem Toscanini: Nelli, Barbieri, di Stefano, Siepi



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Any word on us merging with vocal music?
I ordered this by mistake and was blown away with it. Here is a wonderful review of it on Amazon by Hale Hawkwood:
From the first entry of the chorus, Verdi's great Requiem comes at the listener with a searing, white-hot intensity on this 1951 recording under the incisive baton of the legendary Toscanini. When the lengthy Dies Irae bursts through the speakers the effect is shattering - or 'hair-raising' as the Penguin Guide, quoted on the back cover of this bargain Regis reissue, rightly called it.
Toscanini and Verdi knew each other, and it shows. There's a rightness about this conductor and this composer combined.
The Requiem is an operatic work, rather than an overtly religious one (Verdi was what one could call a spiritual agnostic, I suppose) and to bring out the dramatic aspects of the work, as Toscanini does here, is perfectly justifiable. In fact, any performance or recording of the work which ignored its operatic/dramatic content would be giving short measure.
I can hardly fault the four singers on this sometimes unbearably exciting recording from Carnegie Hall. Herva Nelli - a Toscanini favourite - was in her early forties at the time, and on this evidence was a forceful soprano with a gleaming voice.
The mezzo Fedora Barbieri sings to wonderful effect, as does the ardent Giuseppe di Stefano, who sounds like he's singing as if his life depended on it.
Cesare Siepe possessed one of the great bass voices of the mid-twentieth century, as one can clearly hear on his contributions.
The Robert Shaw Chorale are as sharply rehearsed as the NBC SO under Toscanini's remorseless baton (the one he left to Herva Nelli in his will, perhaps?) and the whole 78 minutes are essential for any lover of Verdi, Toscanini, or merely the Requiem.
The sound - along with some early laryngitic interferences courtesy of the NY branch of Coughers Anonymous (who had and have branches everywhere) - is both almost literally stunning and, in more heated passages, off-puttingly 'crowded', as if the orchestra and singers are being heard as a vast cluster rather than individual singers making an organic whole. But considering the recording's age, and the more pertinent fact that it is from a live concert, nobody could in fairness ask for more. However, I did keep thinking to myself: "Oh, how I wish I`d actually been there!" Now, that must have been something.
Some of the audience surely can't have got much sleep that night. Toscanini, with Verdi's help, would have seen to that.

Has anyone else heard it? I am normally not that sensitive to conductors but he breaths fire into this.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am a big fan of this one but please do yourself a favor and be sure not to miss my favorite which is Reiner's Price/Elias/Bjorling/Tozzi


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> I am a big fan of this one but please do yourself a favor and be sure not to miss my favorite which is Reiner's Price/Elias/Bjorling/Tozzi


I like the piece enough to get a second version and I have heard good things about that one.. I exercised in place 1.5 hours today listening to my vinyls and watching The Icefields Parkway on Youtube. They are good for my health.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Another great live performance of more recent vintage was given an official release only a couple of years ago. I first knew of its existence when I came across a youtube clip of Jessye Norman singing the _LIbera me_ which surprised me, as I thought she had always sung the mezzo part. I tried to track down the complete performance, but there appeared to be no recording anywhwere and then the Norman clip I had heard disappeared from youtube. Eventually the complete performance appeared on youtube and it has now been issued on BR Klassik










All the other singers are fabulous too, the sound (live stereo) is excellent and Muti, very much in the Toscanini mould, is on fire.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> I am a big fan of this one but please do yourself a favor and be sure not to miss my favorite which is Reiner's Price/Elias/Bjorling/Tozzi


I just ordered it at a great price ( Price).


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

That Toscanini recording is fantastic, but even more so, imo, in very good sound for the time, is his 1940 reading with Milanov, Castagna, Bjorling and Moscona. It's not quite as polished but it's very, very exciting and there are some moments of absolutely exquisite vocalism.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> That Toscanini recording is fantastic, but even more so, imo, in very good sound for the time, is his 1940 reading with Milanov, Castagna, Bjorling and Moscona. It's not quite as polished but it's very, very exciting and there are some moments of absolutely exquisite vocalism.


I had wondered about that one. Thanks.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Op.123 said:


> That Toscanini recording is fantastic, but even more so, imo, in very good sound for the time, is his 1940 reading with Milanov, Castagna, Bjorling and Moscona. It's not quite as polished but it's very, very exciting and there are some moments of absolutely exquisite vocalism.


Yes, and Toscanini is even better earlier, allowing a little air around the music; not constantly driven but still forceful.

I seem to remember that RCA wanted to issue it on discs, even though they already had issued the Gigli-Caniglia-Stigniani-Pinza/Serafin Verdi Requiem from 1939, but Toscanini said no because the balance was a little off on the brass in one place. Anyone know where that story came from?

There's a matching Beethoven Missa Solemnis from the same season and with the same lineup but Alexander Kipnis instead of Moscona. Both performances were from a hoard including most of the 1939/1940 and 1940/1941 Met season that were "rescued" back in the late 1950's by a pair of übercollectors from Berkeley when NBC was in the process of closing down the old shortwave relay station at Point Reyes, north of SF, and dumping an enormous backlog of linechecks into the Pacific Ocean!! (Programs used to be relayed to Hawaii, etc, from discs of the previous week's broadcasts).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> Yes, and Toscanini is even better earlier, allowing a little air around the music; not constantly driven but still forceful.
> 
> I seem to remember that RCA wanted to issue it on discs, even though they already had issued the Gigli-Caniglia-Stigniani-Pinza/Serafin Verdi Requiem from 1939, but Toscanini said no because the balance was a little off on the brass in one place. Anyone know where that story came from?
> 
> There's a matching Beethoven Missa Solemnis from the same season and with the same lineup but Alexander Kipnis instead of Moscona. Both performances were from a hoard including most of the 1939/1940 and 1940/1941 Met season that were "rescued" back in the late 1950's by a pair übercollectors from Berkeley when NBC was in the process of closing down the old shortwave relay station at Point Reyes, north of SF, and dumping an enormous backlog of linechecks into the Pacific Ocean!! (Programs used to be relayed to Hawaii, etc, from discs of the previous week's broadcasts).


I feel like I am sitting at the back of a room full of straight A students


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> Yes, and Toscanini is even better earlier, allowing a little air around the music; not constantly driven but still forceful.
> 
> I seem to remember that RCA wanted to issue it on discs, even though they already had issued the Gigli-Caniglia-Stigniani-Pinza/Serafin Verdi Requiem from 1939, but Toscanini said no because the balance was a little off on the brass in one place. Anyone know where that story came from?
> 
> There's a matching Beethoven Missa Solemnis from the same season and with the same lineup but Alexander Kipnis instead of Moscona. Both performances were from a hoard including most of the 1939/1940 and 1940/1941 Met season that were "rescued" back in the late 1950's by a pair of übercollectors from Berkeley when NBC was in the process of closing down the old shortwave relay station at Point Reyes, north of SF, and dumping an enormous backlog of linechecks into the Pacific Ocean!! (Programs used to be relayed to Hawaii, etc, from discs of the previous week's broadcasts).


The Missa Solemnis is just as excellent. Both are incomparable, my favourite recordings of those works. The Serafin Requiem is of course wonderful too, and I find Gigli and Pinza an improvement. All are essential.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Op.123 said:


> The Missa Solemnis is just as excellent. Both are incomparable, my favourite recordings of those works. The Serafin Requiem is of course wonderful too, and I find Gigli and Pinza an improvement. All are essential.


I agree with you about Pinza--his "mors stupebit" on the Serafin recording is one of the most amazing things recorded


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## toasino (Jan 3, 2022)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Any word on us merging with vocal music?
> I ordered this by mistake and was blown away with it. Here is a wonderful review of it on Amazon by Hale Hawkwood:
> From the first entry of the chorus, Verdi's great Requiem comes at the listener with a searing, white-hot intensity on this 1951 recording under the incisive baton of the legendary Toscanini. When the lengthy Dies Irae bursts through the speakers the effect is shattering - or 'hair-raising' as the Penguin Guide, quoted on the back cover of this bargain Regis reissue, rightly called it.
> Toscanini and Verdi knew each other, and it shows. There's a rightness about this conductor and this composer combined.
> ...


It has been some time since I heard this performance but loved it the times, I have heard it. Siepi, Barbieri and di Stefano are among my very favorite opera singers. Unfortunately, I never heard di Stefano live, nor Nelli. I only saw Barbieri as Quickly in Fallstaff and loved her performance. Fortunately, I did see Siepi often, and he remains one of my operatic idols.


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## toasino (Jan 3, 2022)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Another great live performance of more recent vintage was given an official release only a couple of years ago. I first knew of its existence when I came across a youtube clip of Jessye Norman singing the _LIbera me_ which surprised me, as I thought she had always sung the mezzo part. I tried to track down the complete performance, but there appeared to be no recording anywhwere and then the Norman clip I had heard disappeared from youtube. Eventually the complete performance appeared on youtube and it has now been issued on BR Klassik
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I saw the Norman mezzo Requiem on YouTube. From what I have read she only sang the mezzo part as a substitute for another mezzo who cancelled soon before the performance.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

toasino said:


> I saw the Norman mezzo Requiem on YouTube. From what I have read she only sang the mezzo part as a substitute for another mezzo who cancelled soon before the performance.


She shook the earth. It was amazing. Soon in a contest.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

toasino said:


> I saw the Norman mezzo Requiem on YouTube. From what I have read she only sang the mezzo part as a substitute for another mezzo who cancelled soon before the performance.


I just know that when I was looking for this Muti performance (before it had been released by BR Klassik) all I could find were clips of her singing the mezzo part. Presumably that live recording (under Abbado, with Margaret Price, Carreras and Raimondi) was more readily available. Tracking down the Muti Munich performance took me quite a bit of time, though it's easy to find now of course.


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