Ferenc Fricsay, RIAS Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin - Verdi: Messa da Requiem; Rossini: Stabat Mater (1993)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 556 Mb | Total time: 77:40+72:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon | # 439 684-2 | Recorded: 1954, 1960
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 556 Mb | Total time: 77:40+72:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon | # 439 684-2 | Recorded: 1954, 1960
This set, issued to mark the 75th anniversary of Fricsay's birth, dates from late 1960 when the conductor was already suffering from the disease that killed him. It was to prove to be his final performance of the piece. I don't think it's fanciful to feel in this intensely dramatic and immediate reading that the conductor fully realized his own mortality. At any rate it's an interpretation of tragic force and lyrical beauty that eclipses most of its rivals. Fricsay was here working with a choir and orchestra entirely devoted to him and, as in the Shaw performance on Telarc/Conifer such familiarity pays huge dividends in terms of unified thought. Then, the circumstances of a live occasion seem to infect everyone concerned with a feeling of urgency.