Verdi's Requiem is not just a drama, but the universal drama, not just a tragedy, but the common tragedy. Its subject is death, not the pity and terror of death, just the terror of death, just the complete dread of dying and the absolute horror of death. It's quintessentially operatic in conception and essentially nineteenth century Italian in execution and expression, but the work itself is the howl of humanity overwhelmed with the bone-deep fear of death. It is, in a word, morbid, and any performance that doesn't scare ...
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Verdi's Requiem is not just a drama, but the universal drama, not just a tragedy, but the common tragedy. Its subject is death, not the pity and terror of death, just the terror of death, just the complete dread of dying and the absolute horror of death. It's quintessentially operatic in conception and essentially nineteenth century Italian in execution and expression, but the work itself is the howl of humanity overwhelmed with the bone-deep fear of death. It is, in a word, morbid, and any performance that doesn't scare listeners out of their wits plainly misses the point of the work.Although this performance by Eugen Jochum leading the Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in München in 1950 is anything but essentially nineteenth century Italian or quintessentially operatic in conception, execution, expression, or anything for that matter, it'll still scare listeners out of their wits. Jochum's interpretation may be Germanic in tone and intonation, but it is nevertheless suffused with...
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