Great Conductors • De Sabata ADD 8.111064 MOZART Requiem Pia Tassinari, Soprano Ebe Stignani, Mezzo-soprano Ferruccio Tagliavini, Tenor Italo Tajo, Bass Rome and Turin Orchestras and Choirs of the Italian Broadcasting Authority Victor De Sabata (Recorded in 1941) Great Conductors: Victor De Sabata Mozart: Requiem Amidst the tragic events of the Second World War two Parlophon-CETRA label (Mossolov’s Iron Foundry; significant musical anniversaries were celebrated in the two sections of Glazunov’s From the Middle Ages, year 1941. The first, the fortieth anniversary of Stravinsky’s Feu d’artifice and De Sabata’s own Giuseppe Verdi’s death, was marked principally in Juventus, all available now on Naxos 8.110859). Italy, the second, the 150th anniversary of the death of Although the EIAR orchestras were very good, they Mozart, the most brilliant and most European of all the were in no position to compete with the better-known great composers, had perhaps the wider resonance, the and longer-established forces of Vienna, Berlin and potential to bring together, symbolically at least, those London. Nonetheless, between 1936 and 1946 many of divided by the war. Inevitably, of all the many works the great conductors chose to work with them: Bruno performed to honour Mozart, the most frequently Walter, Willem Mengelberg, Dimitri Mitropoulos, chosen was his Requiem. Erich Kleiber, Ernest Ansermet, Igor Markevitch, Fritz Furtwängler, who very rarely included the work in Reiner, Carl Schuricht, Eugen Jochum, Issay Dobrowen his concerts, conducted it four times that year, on 5th and Karl Elmendorff were all enthusiastic about their and 6th December in Vienna (with Maria Reining, collaborations, however brief, with the orchestras, while Margarete Klose, Georg Hann and the Vienna a young Herbert von Karajan made some now-famous Philharmonic), and then on 10th and 11th of the same recordings with them for Polydor-CETRA. The best- month in Berlin (with Trude Eipperle, Walther Ludwig, known Italian conductors of the day (Vittorio Gui, Gino Josef Greindl and the Berlin Philharmonic). Bruno Marinuzzi, Willy Ferrero, Antonio Guarnieri, Walter, by then in exile in the United States, gave a Bernardino Molinari and Franco Ferrara) also worked large-scale performance in November 1941 at Carnegie with the orchestras on a regular basis, as did a number Hall; the concert was broadcast live and would long of composers keen to conduct their own works (Pietro remain in the memories of those who heard it. In this Mascagni, Riccardo Zandonai, Ildebrando Pizzetti, anniversary year, then, Mozart’s final work was Ottorino Respighi and Ernest Bloch). programmed by the world’s greatest orchestras and De Sabata worked with the EIAR orchestras again conductors, among them Victor de Sabata, the best- on several occasions: firstly on 1st and 8th March 1935, known and most gifted conductor to remain in Italy presenting, in two different programmes, Orefice’s during the Fascist period (Toscanini had moved to the Tempio greco; The Ride of the Valkyries and the Good United States in 1939), who gave two radio broadcasts Friday Music from Parsifal; the Prelude to Pizzetti’s Lo of the Requiem and made the recorded version on this straniero; Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Coriolan CD. Overture; Berlioz’s Rákóczy March; Franck’s Le The relationship between De Sabata and the Chasseur maudit; the Overture to Rossini’s La gazza orchestras (one based in Turin, the other in Rome) of ladra; Martucci’s Notturno; Bach’s Three Chorales the Italian broadcasting authority, the EIAR (Ente transcribed by Respighi; and Stravinsky’s Le Chant du Italiano Audizioni Radiofoniche), had been formed a rossignol. A year later, on 13th March, he returned with few years earlier. In 1934 he had been invited to give a third, equally demanding concert (Beethoven’s some concerts with the Turin orchestra and these were “Eroica”, Ghedini’s Marinaresca e baccanale, preceded by a number of recording sessions: De Martucci’s Notturno, and the Prelude to Act One of Die Sabata’s first. The results of these were issued on the Meistersinger). 8.111064 2 De Sabata went back to Turin on 29th March 1942 150th Anniversary of the death of Mozart, given at to conduct a concert featuring Brahms’s Symphony Rome in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli. The No.2; Kodály’s Háry János Suite; Wagner’s all-too-short footage clearly shows De Sabata, the Tannhäuser Overture and the Act IV Prelude from soloists and the orchestra, and features a few bars sung Verdi’s Traviata. It was, however, the dramatic concert by Gigli. of 20th November that year that marked his farewell to On 5th December, therefore, Ferruccio Tagliavini, the city: the performance of Beethoven’s Missa Italo Tajo (a remarkable Mozartian), Pia Tassinari and solemnis (with Alba Anzellotti, Ebe Stignani, Francesco Ebe Stignani recorded the Requiem, this time with no Albanese and Duilio Baronti) was interrupted halfway audience. From the EIAR recording information (part of through by an RAF bombing raid. Audience and which survives and is held in the Italian broadcasting performers were evacuated just in time, as the beautiful authority’s library in Rome), it appears that the first Teatro di Torino collapsed in flames. Now homeless, sessions took place on the 4th, straight after the concert, the EIAR Orchestra was transferred to Venice, a city and it is likely that most of the choral sections were given special dispensation during the war because of its recorded then. The remainder, and the solo sections, inestimable historic and artistic significance. The were then recorded the following day, once the “new” concert season continued in 1943 at the La Fenice soloists had arrived. Theatre (under Vittorio Gui and Willy Ferrero) and the The records (issued as 78s in February 1942, orchestra began to record for CETRA again, making a CETRA SS 1001/1008) were an immediate hit: despite number of significant recordings including Haydn’s The wartime shortages, the number of copies sold for the Seasons with Gui and Sheherazade with Ferrero. time was sensational. They were so popular that the Two EIAR recordings from this period had Requiem recording was transferred onto LP in the particular resonance, abroad as well as in Italy: a immediate post-war period (FONIT-CETRA LPV 1001 performance of Verdi’s Requiem of 14th December and LPC 55058) and HMV acquired the rights 1940, and this one of the Mozart Requiem on 5th straightaway, issuing a second 78rpm version for the December 1941 both lived on for years in the memories English-speaking market (HMV DB 9541/48). of those who heard them and in the reviews of the time. This was not the only recording of Mozart’s In both cases the EIAR did things in style, bringing Requiem made in 1941 - a Polydor production with together its two orchestras and their respective choruses Bruno Kittel and his Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic in the grand surroundings of Rome’s Basilica di Santa was issued in Germany, but one particularity renders it Maria degli Angeli, its architectural and historical shockingly obsolete today: Nazi censorship obliged the grandeur unfortunately not matched by its acoustics. producers to purge any references to the Jewish roots of For contractual reasons, three of the four soloists, Maria Christianity in the original Latin texts. CETRA did Caniglia, Beniamino Gigli, Ebe Stignani and Tancredi nothing so reprehensible, maintaining the sacred nature Pasero (all four of whom had also performed the Verdi a of the text to be above any such ideologically or racially year earlier), chosen by De Sabata for the concerts and based editing. live broadcast, had to be replaced for the CETRA Certain 1960s reissues of De Sabata’s Requiem recording (all except Stignani were signed to HMV). were erroneously dated “Berlin, April 1939” (as can be Rome’s Istituto Luce Archive holds a brief ten-minute seen on the reverse of the DGG Heliodor Historisch film of the concerts, catalogued as Giornale di Guerra disc, 88005), thereby causing some confusion. For some No. 204 (these “war journals” were short news-reels time there was thought to have been an earlier shown at cinemas during the interval in the main recording, but this, unfortunately, was not the case. feature) and entitled Commemorative Ceremony for the Listening again to this memorable performance today, 3 8.111064 we can only lament the loss of other De Sabata concerts unique moment in Italian radio history, as well as being that Italian Radio either failed to capture in the first one of the brightest gems in the CETRA archive, and place, or that have since been lost or deleted. His one of the most fascinating and moving performances readings of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Brahms’s we have on record from Victor de Sabata. German Requiem (of which he was one of the greatest interpreters) survive only in the memories of a few G. Paolo Zeccara elderly radio listeners and in the lines of a few Translation: Susannah Howe contemporary reviews. This interpretation of the Requiem, so very Italian in nature - sensual and at the (Special thanks are due to Angelo Scottini for his help same time tragic - will not perhaps please self-appointed and advice with regard to the recorded sources.) Mozart purists, and yet it is irreplaceable evidence of a Great Conductors: Victor De Sabata Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Requiem in D minor, K. 626 56:12 1 Requiem aeternam 7:08 2 Dies irae 2:01 3 Tuba mirum 4:31 4 Rex tremendae 1:51 5 Recordare 7:48 6 Confutatis maledictis 3:12 7 Lacrimosa 4:45 8 Domine Jesu 4:07 9 Hostias 6:00 0 Sanctus 1:20 ! Benedictus 4:38 @ Agnus Dei 8:49 Pia Tassinari, Soprano Ebe Stignani, Mezzo-soprano Ferruccio Tagliavini, Tenor Italo Tajo, Bass Rome and Turin Orchestras and Choirs of the Italian Broadcasting Authority Choral directors: Costantino Costantini and Bruno Erminero Recorded in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli alle Terme, Rome on the 4th and 5th December 1941 CETRA, SS1001/08 2-70664, 2-70665, 2-70666, 2-70667 II, 2-70668 II, 2-70669 II, 2-70670, 2-70671 II, 2-70672, 2-70673 II, 2-70674 II, 2-70675 II, 2-70676, 2-70677, 2-70678, 2-70679 II 8.111064 4 NAXOS Historical NAXOS 8.111064 Wolfgang Amadeus ADD MOZART Playing ൿ DISC PROHIBITED.