This recording of Verdi's Requiem was captured live on January 11 and 14, 2009, at the Barbican in London.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Verdi believed that Manzoni's novel 'I Promessi Sposi' ('The Betrothed') was not just a book, but a 'consolation to humanity' and a 'true book'.
Composition History
Verdi composed his Requiem as a tribute to Alessandro Manzoni, an eminent Italian novelist and poet whom Verdi deeply admired.
Performer Biography
Sir Colin Davis, the conductor on this album, was the London Symphony Orchestra's Principal Conductor from 1995 to 2006 and became its first President since Leonard Bernstein in 2007.
Composition History
The 'Libera Me' movement in Verdi's Requiem originated from an earlier, aborted project for a mass in honor of Rossini, who died in 1868.
Composer Biography
Verdi, like Berlioz, was a humanist who retained a poignant regret for his childhood beliefs but had little use for the historical church.
Critical Reception
Critics often labeled Verdi's Requiem as 'theatrical or operatic', and it was even called 'Verdi's greatest opera'.
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