Hector Berlioz, Robert Spano and more - Berlioz: Requiem

Our price:	$18.98
Media:	Audio CD
Record label:	Telarc
Release date:	24 August, 2004

Average user rating: Average user rating: 5

DYNAMITE

I researched long and hard before buying this recording. It was not listed in any of the CD buying guides I looked through and it had not been reviewed by anyone on Amazon yet. So I downloaded tracks from various recordings and compared them. I bought this one because it is the most well-rounded performance and also has the best sound quality.

The Atlanta Symphony is brassy and full of depth, providing a solid footing with well-tuned timpanis that rumble without individual drumbeats sticking out. The brass section is focused and packs an incredible punch, especially in the Dies Irae. The strings play in unison very well and I have yet to hear any stray notes.

The Atlanta Symphony Chorus is equally impressive, possessing an extremely wide range of dynamic colors that allow them to cut through the orchestra, even on the lowest notes. Their singing is precise, clear, and impassioned. Diction is excellent, but not overpowering.

Frank Lopardo's tenor might not suit everyone, but he sounds far away and "heavenly" enough to make the Sanctus believable and sincere. His singing is less passionate than it is other-worldly. Purely a matter of taste...

Spano keeps both the orchestra and the chorus in perfect line with one another, stretching from glass-shattering fortes to the most ethereal of pianissimos. Spano connects the entire work with a deep fluidity while also confining the Requiem to one CD, a welcome break from other recordings which push the 90 minute line.

I usually don't like Telarc's blaring bass and brass, but for once the engineers nailed it. The sound quality is digitally recorded and first rate; not a trace of static, hiss, crackles, or background noise. High notes do not splat, low notes are not overpowering, and the intensity of the music actually pushed my speakers to their limits (buy some big speakers to fully experience this recording... it will be money well spent). The SACD version when played on a surround sound system is nothing short of INCREDIBLE.

There are valid reasons to prefer other recordings (Sir Colin Davis' or Robert Shaw's are both excellent recordings), but since Berlioz's Requiem was meant to be LOUD, this is the only performance I have listened to so far that one can crank the volume up on and not lose sound quality. Add to that the bonus of the performance being excellent and you have a great modern recording of an epic work.