Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (live stream) 05/03/2021

 Brahms : Ein deutsches Requiem

Chen Reiss, soprano
Thomas Tatzl, baritone
Chorus and Orchestra of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome
Sir Antonio Pappano
As a keen opera lover, my record library is full of Santa Cecilia recordings, mostly from the 50s and 60s, when they were Decca's go-to orchestra and chorus for most of the Italian repertory.  They then sort of subsided into the background a bit, and I certainly wasn't too aware of them for quite some time, until they chose Pappano as their Music Director, and he has worked wonders both for the quality of the orchestra, and its place on the world stage.  This, however, is the first time I've ever seen the orchestra and chorus, and one of the rare times I've experienced them in non-operatic repertory.

The first thing that struck was the lovely tonal quality of the chorus in the hushed opening of the Requiem.  They look almost startlingly relaxed, mouths barely moving when singing quietly, and even in the more violent passages, that tension I've seen - and experienced - in chorus singers was barely visible.  The upside was that lovey, creamy tone.  The downside was a certain soft-grained aspect to the German, which lacked bite, and therefore some force of expression in the fugal or more dramatic sections. 

The orchestra, however, lacked nothing in expression, and played with beautifully judged detail.  The brass was occasionally a little too low-key for my liking - those horn octaves in the funeral march of the second movement should ring out more - but winds and strings were faultless, and it was nice to hear the piece with its harp part doubled, which is the preferred option, but not often exercised, and the organ, which adds a little extra richness to the sound.

Chen Reiss sang "Ich hab nun Traurigkeit" with a fresh, sweet tone, but Thomas Tatzl was less satisfactory, with a peculiarly tight voice, some intonation difficulties at the start of his first number, and a general lack of resonance. The overall impression, however, was very positive, warm and poignant, as it should be, under Pappano's expert guidance.

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