Messa di Gloria – |Quattro Pezzi Sacri

This recording juxtaposes three works by possibly the two most famous Italian composers of opera: Giacomo Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, an early composition by the only 20-year-old scholar, bursting with ideas, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Stabat Mater and Te Deum, the last compositions from the mature period of a master, well-versed in all musical styles. The Chor der Hochschule für Evangelische Kirchenmusik Bayreuth (Choir of the Academy for Protestant Church Music Bayreuth) and the Konzertchor der Hochschule für Katholische Kirchenmusik Regensburg (Concert Choir of the Academy for Catholic Church Music Regensburg) interpret these contrasting works and, together with the Prager Philharmoniker KSO (Prague Philharmonic Orchestra), have created this impressive recording of choral-symphonic music. Under the baton of Karl Rathgeber the ensembles expressively make use of both works’ furious range of sounds: the large-scale choirs with their many young singers are convincing both in the explosive tutti sections with their profound fortissimo as well as in the challenging soft passages with absolute transparency and clarity of diction.