Donizetti - Requiem (Fackler, 1979) [Decca]

Donizetti - Requiem. Performed by Verona Arena Chorus, Verona Arena Orchestra. With Viorica Cortez, Luciano Pavarotti, Renato Bruson, Paolo Washington. Conducted by Gerhard Fackler.

Performers: Renato Bruson (Baritone), Luciano Pavarotti (Tenor), Viorica Cortez (Mezzo Soprano), Paolo Washington (Bass)
Conductor: Gerhard Fackler
Orchestra/Ensemble: Verona Teatro Arena Orchestra, Verona Teatro Arena Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1835; Italy
Length: 1 Hours 5 Mins.
Label: London/Decca
Jubilee Catalog #: 425043
Spars Code: ADD


The requiem is dedicated to Donizetti's friend Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835). In this requiem, Donizetti brings into play the tradition of Italian church music and a new style, thoroughly inspired by music drama, like that which was to stamp Verdi's requiem forty years later. The work is broadly laid out, and its alternation of solo and choral parts is entirely operatic in nature. However, Donizetti could not disavow his training as a church musician, which emerges in the heavily word-oriented interpretation of the liturgical text and in repeated reminiscences of the rigorous compositional style. Although the work lacks the dramatic tension and power characteristic of Verdi's requiem, it nevertheless contains a number of strikingly concise effects, especially in the alternation of the typically Donizettian cantilenas and of the powerfully surging, dramatic choral sections. Particularly impressive is the "Dies Irae" with its vividly contrasting sections, which are nonetheless formally integrated into a larger context. (Source: Text: Gottfried Kraus, translation: Roger Clément)

Originally begun as a work in memory of Bellini, this mass was never finished, only published as it existed in 1870 and, ironically, its first performance occurred on the occasion of the removal of Donizetti's remains to a grander site. Lacking a "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei", the work is nevertheless a large-scale (lasting more than an hour), powerful and compelling work which is one of Donizetti's most important non-operatic compositions. (Source: www.recordsinternational.com)

TRACK LIST:

1. Requiem: Requiem Aeternam - Kyrie - Requiem Aeternam
2. Requiem: In Memoria Aeterna
3. Requiem: Dies Irae
4. Requiem: Tuba Mirum
5. Requiem: Judex Ergo
6. Requiem: Rex Tremendae Majestatis
7. Requiem: Ingemisco
8. Requiem: Preces Maledictis
9. Requiem: Confutatis Maledictis
10. Requiem: Oro Supplex
11. Requiem: Lacrymosa Dies Illa
12. Requiem: Domine, Jesu Christe
13. Requiem: Lux Aeterna
14. Requiem: Libera Me Domine

I am not the original ripper. After looking for it for a time in the net I could finally find it. I just wanted to share it with the full Avax community.