Verdi Messa da Requiem ^b.

Cherubini Requiem Mass No. 1 in C minor ^a. ^b Renata Scotto (sop); ^b Agnes Baltsa (mez); ^b Veriano Luchetti (ten); ^b Evgeny Nesterenko (bass); ^a Ambrosian Singers; ^b Ambrosian Chorus; Philharmonia Orchestra / Riccardo Muti.

EMI Forte (Mid  price) (CD) CZS5 68613-2 (two discs: 135 minutes: ^a DDD/ ^b ADD). Item marked ^a from HMV ASD4071 (5/82), ^b HMV SLS5185 (12/79).

This is surely among the top ten versions of Verdi’s much-recorded work, if not among the top five. Apart from controversially fast tempos for the Dies irae and Sanctus, the pacing carries conviction and the execution of Muti’s professional chorus carries out his exigent demands to the letter. They are well balanced in the recording with the Philharmonia of 15 or so years ago. This is a young man’s very dramatic, incandescent view of the Requiem, missing the spiritual element found elsewhere, not least in Fricsay’s live, mid-price version from 1960. It compares reasonably favourably with Muti’s later, still full-price version, also on EMI, a rather more considered reading.

That performance has a better balanced team of soloists. Scotto, for all her understanding of Verdian style and dramatic flair, sounds uncomfortable under pressure. The youngish Baltsa is mostly exemplary, as is Luchetti, always an attractively manly tenor. Nesterenko is solid but uninspiring.

At this price I would prefer Fricsay’s tragic, heaven-reaching interpretation to Muti’s, not least because Rossini’s Stabat mater seems a better makeweight than the Cherubini Mass. Why not have chosen instead Muti’s account of Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces?

AB