Verdi, Requiem: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Lyric Opera of Chicago, David Zinman (conductor) Symphony Center, Chicago 15.6.2007 (JLZ)

Soloists:

Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano
Yvonne Naef, mezzo soprano
Giuseppe Sabbatini, tenor
Morris D. Robinson, bass

Chorus Master - Duain Wolfe


As familiar as it is, an excellent performance of Verdi's Requiem can be profoundly moving, and the Chicago Symphony offered such an experience in a concert near the close of its 2006-7 season.  Compelling throughout the evening, David Zinman led a memorable performance that was uncompromising in rendering this familiar score. Zinman demonstrated a close rapport with the Orchestra and Chorus from the start and maintained it throughout the evening. His eye contact and gestures reflected his attention to detail, including some peripheral glances toward the soloists to the left and the right. In fact, he would look directly up to the chorus in the seats that surround the back of the stage (sometimes used for additional seating at orchestral concerts) and draw the attention of the entire Chicago Symphony Chorus as they shaped together the various choral passages from the opening "Requiem" through to the final choral statements in the closing "Libera me." Such interaction was particularly evident in the "Sanctus," which emerged with polish and precision, elements that are rarely executed so well. He pulled  menacing sibilants from the Chorus in the  "Dies irae" passage: Solvent saeclum in favilla / Teste David cum Sibylla.

Zinman led the Chicago Symphony in  similar style, with constantly active engagement with the performers evident in his animated, but never excessive conducting. He brought out solos and the  passages with chamber-music like scoring -  as occurs, for example in the "Ingemisco" section of the "Dies irae" - extremely expressively. With the expected tumult of the "Dies irae," Zinman produced  a full yet balanced sound that was indeed heaven-storming, all the while leading with well-shaped phrasing. Whenever the score required  quieter approaches, these emerged from  equally clear direction and not from the  "shushing " gestures often  resorted to by less-experienced conductors in desperate attempts to get responses from the  the ensemble.   Zinman's was   a solid reading of the entire work, which was  never allowed to seem studied or arch.

The soloists were also remarkable as four high-caliber performers who worked well individually and in ensemble. An assemblage of international musicians, the soloists included Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano; Yvonne Naef, mezzo soprano;Giuseppe Sabbatini, tenor and  Morris D. Robinson, bass who replaced the Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov. The strength of these singers was apparent from the opening of the "Kyrie," where their voices blended immediately to contrast the choral sounds in the preceding movement. Radvanovsky, known to Chicago audiences for her impeccable role of Leonora in ll trovatore in the 2006-7 season of Lyric Opera of Chicago, was compelling whenever she sang, and the evenness she brought to the various registers of the solo soprano part was outstanding. Likewise, Yvonne Naef was impressive in meeting all the demands of her taxing part, with an effortless rendering of some of the higher passages. When singing in duet  Radvanovsky and Naef blended well, while still retaining her individual sounds. Their work in the "Recordare" section of the "Dies irae" made this quintessentially Verdian piece fresh and exciting. Some moments suggested duet passages from Verdi's operatic music, an element not unwelcome in this piece, which requires the expressive quality found in the composer's secular idiom to create a Requiem that transcends the intended purpose of honoring Manzoni.

Sabbatini brought a pliable sound to the demanding tenor part and the part with aplomb. His resonance in the final iterations of "eleison" in the "Kyrie" established a color that the other soloists followed when bringing the number to its conclusion. With the bass part, the American singer Morris D. Robinson was wonderfully clear in the ringing and precise sounds required of him. His solo "Salva me" in the "Rex tremendans" section rang throughout the hall, and his "Confutatis" solo was wonderfully well thought out. All in all, the four soloists, each having made their debuts with the Chicago Symphony in this program, were very well suited to the work and were wholly engaging in their delivery.

In bringing together all these forces, Zinman created and maintained an appropriately operatic tension to the work, allowing the full spectrum of emotion to emerge clearly. The requisite drama of the choral "Dies irae" resounded throughout the hall, but the lyricism that must always be part of the  the Lacrimosa's "Pie Jesu"  was contrastingly poignant. Nowhere was the expressive range clearer than in the "Libera me," the section that captures all the elements of the Requiem in a single movement. Radvanosky's dramatic opening was as forceful and strong as any of the tutti passages that preceded it, and Zinman maintained the intensity in the orchestra and choral music that followed. Almost like a heroine in any of Verdi's operas, Radvanovsky brought the pleading implicit in the text into sonic expression, as her solo voice confronted the choral cries of damnation in the Dies irae's reprise.  Verdi's innovative music juxtaposes the polarities found in the liturgical text, to bring its inherent conflicts to  resolution  when  the solo voice  portrays the soul's ultimate deliverance. 

In this performance, the consummate Verdian  Radvanovsky was utterly convincing, emphasising her singing with  the many subtleties she brought in her by eye contact and body language. At the same time, it was  her musicianship that lingers in memory. Her quiet passages never lacked intensity, while her necessarily louder singing was always on pitch and even in timbre. It was this glorious finesse that capped the performance, all the while responding to the overall vision Zinman brought to the work.

Few symphonic seasons approach their end with such a remarkable performance, and this is one that will be remembered in  years to come. The talent, experience, and musicianship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,  Chorus, and all four soloists, led by David Zinman made this a three-dimensional vision of Verdi's Requiem. Such a committed reading made the full power of Verdi's score tangible to the fortunate audiences lucky enough to have experienced any of the  three performances in this run.


James L Zychowicz

 

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