Verdi et al. - Messa per Rossini

Riccardo Chailly, Maria Jose Siri (soprano), Veronica Simeoni (mezzo-soprano), Giorgio Berrugi (tenor), Simone Piazzola (baritone), Riccardo Zanellato (bass), Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala

The Messa per Rossini was an extraordinary project proposed by Verdi within days of Rossini’s death in November 1868. Leading Italian composers of the day would each contribute, gratis, a movement for a Requiem Mass in honour of the late master, to be performed by all-Italian forces in Bologna, Rossini’s spiritual home, on the first anniversary of his death. The composers were selected by committee, and although there are some regrettable omissions, notably Mercadante (too ill) and Boito (too young and, at that time, antipathetical to Verdi), in the end no fewer than 12 leading musical figures of the day joined Verdi in composing the work. None are household names today. Although most were experienced in the composition of sacred and/or operatic works, many were best known and respected as administrators or theorists, and they ranged in age from the elderly Carlo Coccia (1782-1873) to the young Antonio Cagnoni (1828-1896) and Pietro Platania (1828-1907).

Verdi reserved for himself the Mass’s final section, ‘Libera me’, which he subsequently used in his own Messa da Requiem, and it is fascinating to hear that movement in its earlier guise, with minor but telling differences from the music we know today. But the Messa per Rossini is also of huge interest for the light it throws on Italian music of the mid-19th century, a nation still young and searching for a distinctive musical identity.

Inevitably the work lacks musical unity (the ‘Dies irae’ music in Verdi’s ‘Libera me’ is that now familiar from his own Requiem, rather than quoting Antonio Bazzini’s very effective movement for the Messa per Rossini), but the occasional nature of the work and the unique perspectives it offers excuse it from such criticism. However, although the music was completed with extraordinary speed, problems swiftly arose over the proposed performance, and the work was quickly shelved, indefinitely postponed and soon forgotten. Only in 1970 was it uncovered by the Verdi specialist David Rosen, and it eventually received its premiere in Stuttgart in 1988 under international forces led by Helmuth Rilling.

Until now, Rilling’s recording, made with the Stuttgart forces, has been the only commercially available account of this unique work, but now at last, in the sesquicentennial year of Rossini’s death, comes an all-Italian account, recorded live in Milan in November 2017. The starry soloists exude Italian warmth and passion, and the forces of La Scala under their music director Riccardo Chailly are right inside the music’s idioms and on top musical form.

If Verdi’s own contribution inevitably overshadows the other movements, there is nevertheless still plenty of music to admire here. Antonio Buzzolla’s splendidly atmospheric ‘Requiem e Kyrie’ makes a fine opening movement, while Bazzini’s ‘Dies irae’ and Carlo Pedrotti’s ‘Tuba mirum’ are similarly involving. There are some memorable solo movements, including Antonio Cagnoni’s ‘Quid sum miser’ (soprano Maria José Siri and mezzo Veronica Simeoni) and Alessandro Nini’s ‘Ingemisco’ (tenor Giorgio Berrugi here a distinct improvement on the Rilling account).

Coccia’s ‘Lacrimosa’ includes an unexpectedly chirpy fugal section, reflecting his direct links with an earlier, more classical tradition, but for real contrapuntal mastery try Pietro Platania’s ‘Sanctus’. Gaetano Gaspari’s ‘Offertorium’ is surprisingly accomplished, given that he was chiefly notable as a bibliographer, and Lauro Rossi’s ‘Agnus Dei’ is sentimental to just the right degree (again highlighting Siri’s excellent soprano). Baritone Simone Piazzola and bass Riccardo Zanellato are in excellent voice too, and there are some brief but exquisite instrumental solos in Raimondo Boucheron’s ‘Confutatis’ (which at points contains echoes of the storm swirls from Rigoletto).

If in the final analysis the Messa per Rossini fails to match anything in Rossini’s own sacred music output (or, for that matter, Verdi’s), it still adds up to more than the sum of its parts by virtue of the unique insights it gives into a world of Italian music that was fast being superseded by contemporary developments. In a performance as fine and nuanced as Chailly’s, it will whet the appetite of anyone interested in the operatic and vocal music of this period. It is certainly among the most distinctive contributions to this Rossini anniversary year, a long overdue tribute to one of the 19th century’s true greats, at last in a world-class recording by his compatriots.