Claudio Abbado - Verdi: Messa di Requiem (2001)

EMI was quite right to be on hand to record this performance in Berlin at a time when Abbado had arisen from his sick-bed to show just how much this work meant to him in the circumstances. It's conveyed in spades through the tremendous concentration and emotional thrust felt throughout this shattering interpretation. This performance has something extra that you find in Fricsay's live, 1960 account, and both come close to the spiritual element in the music. Abbado has at his bidding a superb group of specialist choirs who combine effortlessly into a cohesive whole, singing with commendable breadth, accuracy and involvement, few if any better on disc. They find fit counterparts in the players of the BPO who seem individually, in solos, and collectively intent on giving of their appreciable best for their chief. So all the big choral moments, Dies Irae, Rex tremendae, Sanctus, Libera me fugue are superbly achieved.
EMI's recording is wide-ranging and immediate, the equal of any the work has yet received.
If the solo singing can't be given such an unqualified encomium, much of it is impressive, especially that of the young mezzo Daniela Barcellona, even in tone and beseeching in manner.
Gheorghiu does so much so well: she sings throughout in that rich, warm tone of hers and offers many long, arching phrases. She's also as dramatic as one could wish in the Libera me, but she doesn't really do the ethereal moments as well as many of her predecessors. Alagna has his uneven moments and can't compare with Pavarotti on Muti's version (reviewed below) for sheer effulgence, but he sings with a deal of passion and authority. The disappointment is the youthful Bulgarian bass Julian Konstantinov, whose singing is lamed by several untidy moments and by ill-tuned pitching.
In terms of fidelity to Verdi, Toscanini, Serafin, Giulini (in the BBC Legends version), Muti (though the live EMI recording at La Scala isn't so successful as this one in Berlin) and Gardiner, in his individually authentic way, are indispensable, but the new Abbado, given its superlative sound and special circumstances, is an important addition to the work's discography.