Verdi's Requiem = <3

April 25, 2012 at 12:33 AM

The symphony I am in is working on the Verdi Requiem right now and WOW what a beautiful piece of music. It is so amazing to be part of such an awesome work. It really makes me realize exactly why I love music. The fact that a group of musicians can get together and make something so beautiful is absolutely amazing. I have truly enjoyed every moment of this experience.

From Jim Hastings
Posted on April 25, 2012 at 3:01 PM

It is, indeed, a remarkable score -- and it made a vivid first impression on me. I was in the CSO's training school, late teens, when we tackled this piece early in my first season.

Verdi's music has been part of my life since early childhood. Time after time, the composer came up with melodies that made me wish I had written them myself.

From Sander Marcus
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 3:11 PM

Those who consider the great operatic composer Verdi as making a requiem into a overly theatrical drama simply don't hear the depth a spirituality in this great piece.

Likewise, I think it's the same critics who think that Paganini was just a technical showoff and not a great composer, that Bartok had no sense of (musical) humor, that everything Beethoven wrote should be placed on Mt. Olympus (note the 8th Symphony, 3rd movement, Beethoven's vaudivillian take-off of his friend Maelzel's invention of the metronome), that Tchaikovsky had no subtlety, that Bach is boring and doesn't "rock," etc.

To me, one of the enduring lures of classical music (and the great violinists) is that even in the most familiar piece or performance, there is always an opportunity to discover something that you didn't hear before. I like what Donald Francis Tovey said about Mozart, that his music is simultaneously "unexpected and inevitable" (or was that, "inevitable and unexpected"?).

And, of course, how can one leave this discussion without the most famous response to a music critic ever written. Ferruccio Busoni had performed one of his compositions at a concert, and one music critic's newspaper review sliced it (and the composer) apart. Busoni sent a brief note to the critic, as follows, "I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is in front of me. Soon it will be behind me."

Cheers,
Sandy

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Verdi's Requiem = <3

Laurie's Books

Subscribe