Giuseppe Verdi – MESSA DA REQUIEM

Conductor ROBERTO SALVALAIO

Soloists

LĂCRIMIOARA CRISTESCU – soprano
LILIANA MATTEI CIUCĂ – mezzosoprano
ADRIAN DUMITRU – tenor
IUSTINIAN ZETEA – bass

Choir conductor ROBERT DANIEL RĂDOIAŞ

Arad Philharmonic closes its 2015-2016 musical season on the evening of 30th June, in the majestic space of St. Antoine of Padua Catholic Cathedral. The last meeting of the “chain” of concerts is conducted by Roberto Salvalaio, accompanied by the conductor of the Academic choir, Robert Daniel Rădoiaş, and also by a carefully selected musical ensemble – soprano Lăcrimioara Cristescu, mezzosoprano Liliana Mattei Ciucă, tenor Adrian Dumitru and bass Iustinian Zetea.

The piece chosen for the final concert is Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi. One of the most extraordinary musical pieces ever dedicated to a wide instrumental and voice ensemble, the title reflects both the discreet ecclesiastic traditions, devoid of ostentation, and the Italian opera of the XIXth century – contrasting with the former: dramatic, full of extravagance and shimmer. An original, unusual transposition of the Catholic “Missa pro defunctis”, an etalon of the Verdi’s work, the piece has had its now famous words of appraisal, over time: “an opera in ecclesiastic clothing” – words by Hans von Bülow, the first to have started the controversy regarding the preeminence of the sacred or the spectacular in this masterpiece dedicated to the memory of Alessandro Manzoni. “Only a genius could have written such a piece” – Johannes Brahms had previously affirmed, while according to remark printed in the British press, after the premiere at Albert Hall (1875), the work was “the most beautiful piece of church music after Mozart’s Requiem”.