Verdi's Requiem

[Drum]

Wiener Philharmoniker/Karajan, Tomowa-Sintow, Baltsa, Carreras, van Dam

(Sorry, can't just link you to YouTube for a taste...:shrug:...this is purely audio magic)



Divine!

[Shakespeare]

1. That's an absolutely beautiful piece.

I'm assuming that this particular performance is especially good?

[Drum]

5. Really really beautiful!

It's a beautiful recording.

I was with the MET opera for 5 years, and got to know an awful lot of Verdi---gratefully---along with many others, and it's a real treat now. I aleady knew of this work (as a kid, my folks had the record) as it's quite dramatic and famous, but got a deepened feeling for Verdi's melodic lines and excellent orchestrations and use of choral voices too. First time I've listened to this in awhile, and enjoying it a lot.

The vocal soloists on this one are stellar (Cararas the Tenor---and---Jose Van Dam are quite famous and accomplished too)...orchestra is wonderful, as well.

Shakespeare, we've got to catch up on our music conversation some time....

:hi:

[Shakespeare]

8. I am ALWAYS happy to talk about music.

I'm loading some random overtures on my new iPod right now (have been uploading CDs all day, and I think I'm going cross-eyed from sorting out all the playlists....).

And now I wanna hear that recording.

[Drum]

11. I love to talk about it too, but

in our earlier exchanges, I hope I didn't leave you an impression that I have an overly large exposure to it. I have a hugely eclectic ear and collection of things, but many are old and odd or narrow in scope. And I am very very poorly schooled in music coming out in the last ten-or-so years, so a lot of my friends' playlists are met with my blank stare...I just don't know the names and what to associate with them.
:shrug:

And hey, the appearance of David Byrne on my MySpace friends? Yeah I wish we were buds! I wrote him and asked for his permission to add a piece of his music to my page (from The Catherine Wheel)...he did not reply yea or nay, just "added" me as a friend. Happy for that, but kinda hollow...he never messages me or anything, LOL.

[BarenakedLady]

12. Uhmmm hello?

You have a myspace page? And I'm not a friend....:( I weep.

[Drum]

17. C'mon, in...lotsa cobwebs, a real fixer-upper.

:/

[BarenakedLady]

20. linky linky loo

:)

[Shakespeare]

14. YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT BEST BUDS WITH DAVID BYRNE?!

I'm so disappointed. ;-)

Nah, I figured that was the case--mostly what I use my myspace page for is to keep tabs on my favorite writers and musicians (and the odd baseball player), so mine resembles yours in that way.

We're both pretty eclectic in music taste, it appears. I've had some training in it, but I'm not sure it makes me any better exposed to it than you've been. I just really, really love it--and almost all kinds. So. There. :-)

[CanuckAmok]

2. Verdi is dead?! Link?

Nothing on CNN about it.

[Shakespeare]

3. ....

:rofl:

[BarenakedLady]

4. But I want to hear it!

x(

[Drum]

6. I will try to find a link to something....

:)

[BarenakedLady]

7. If you have the mp3

I'll give you my email addy and you can send it.

[Drum]

9. Please!

[BarenakedLady]

10. Check your pm sir. nt

[BarenakedLady]

25. Yay I finally got it!

Thank you. :hug:

[Drum]

27. Any ole time...

:hug:

[hickman]

13. Is it better than Mozart's? I'm looking for the music to put in my will.

I always thought if it was good enough for Beethoven. If Verdi is better where do I find it?

[Drum]

18. Well, I'd be out of my depth to say whose is "better"

as they both have huge merits while both are really products of their times and both composers' accumulated careers.... :shrug: There is definitely a style difference between them, so such a choice depends on you.

On their face, though, Verdi's is bigger and much longer, if that makes a diff.

[hickman]

22. Drum, bla, bla bla.

Which is the one that will give comfort to my surviving family? I suspect Mozart. He was the first and the best.

[Drum]

23. In those terms (bla bla bla)

I'd go with the Verdi (specifically, see Reply #15.)

Sorry my prior answer left room for consideration or shades of grey, but it sounds like you already had your choice anyway.

[hickman]

24. I apologies. I talk stupid sometimes.

I think I was wanting a link to Verdi's Requiem. I'm also getting old and opposed to change. Mozart saved me in the tough years.

[Drum]

26. I hear ya.

Mozart and Tchaikovsky helped me pass in school, once I learned that the heavy metal on the radio was for after-homework times.

No hard feelings, m'friend. :hi:

[hickman]

28. I'm sorry for the crappy spelling.

Everything froze. I learned about Mozart from a college friend who played Uriah Heep all the time. She said you play the up and the down, and live in the middle.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. The Requiem Aeternam segment of Libera Me...

sends me to some subliminal paradise, when the right soprano is singing. What ethereal music!

[Drum]

19. amen.

[crim son]

16. Well, hell.

I was just about to post about Verdi's Requiem and here you've gone and stolen my thunder. :rofl:

[Drum]

21. Damn, and I thought "Just maybe, at 2:30 AM on a Saturday night..."

snort!

:hi:

[AwakeAtLast]

29. Have you performed it?

I am a Soprano (classically trained) and I have to say that the soprano part will let you know if you still have the chops! I thouroghly enjoyed the experience, that's for sure! I found it to be one of the more difficult parts, and I trained for six years. Of course I also loved singing both the Mozart and Brahms Requiems, too. However, the most fun I had might just have been Beethoven's Choral Fantasy. Lots of good memories! :)

:hi:

[ironflange]

31. I've performed it twice

It's really a lot of fun, probably the only Requiem that could be staged, given some imagination. It probably has been, for all I know. I too have done the Mozart and Brahms, though I'm not fond of the latter. I've also done Faure's (aaaahhhh) and Britten's, made me cry as well as nearly scream in pain. I stood right in front of the organ, this one:



I too have been in the Choral Fantasy, that's a real riot. We did it with Jon Kimura Parker, who, incidentally, had been in a summer class in Banff with Mrs. Ironflange long ago. It was very funny during the dress rehearsal, when the full choir and band came in he literally jumped up in surprise, it was his first time doing the piece. He told me later that it felt like being hit by a ton of bricks.

For sheer fun, you can't beat Carmina Burana, especially the male parts.

I haven't sung in the big choir for many years now, but I had gotten it out of my system. I don't miss it. What I do miss is the small ensembles in university, particularly the early music.

[AwakeAtLast]

32. Totally agree about Carmina Burana!

I've done that one at least twice, maybe even three times (it seemed to be a favorite of University conductors in the late 80's-early 90's).

I do have a soft spot for Mr. Orff, considering I am a certified Orff instructor. His partner in teaching (and some say personally) was Gunild Keetman. Some of her stuff is really fun!

[Drum]

34. Mercy, not me!

I mean, SURE, I've conducted it numerous times here in my home...naturally! :D

No...I don't sing or play in the orchestra. I was one of the non-vocal participants: dancer, "super" and wardrobe/costume person. It was fascinating, and a lucrative job, but truly the music was the biggest gift for me. My (already considerable) esteem for singers and musicians was so illuminated, and therefore increased. It truly made me a different dancer and artist.

:)

[Burma Jones]

30. Why, I recently performed this

with Goddess of Guinness no less........

Verdi was really scared of dying.................

[Drum]

35. It sure is intense.

It's been awhile since I opened that booklet and read along, but it sure sounds like what you write.

Very cool that you just performed it, and with Goddess of Guinness no less! :D

[BarenakedLady]

33. I've been playing it all day....

Well, what you've sent thus far anyway.

Thank you. It is beautiful. :hug: