Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri Rundfunkchor Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin & Gijs Leenaars

• Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901): Quattro Pezzi Sacri:
• 1 Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri: I. Ave Maria 05:14
• 2 Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri: II. Stabat Mater 12:08
• 3 Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri: III. Laudi alla Vergine Maria 05:00
• 4 : Quattro Pezzi Sacri: IV. Te Deum 14:24
• Pater noster (Volgarizzato da Dante)
• 5 Verdi: Pater noster (Volgarizzato da Dante) 06:36
• Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868): O Salutaris Hostia:
• 6 Rossini: O Salutaris Hostia 03:11
• Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876 - 1948): Otto cori, Op. 2:
• 7 Wolf-Ferrari: Otto cori, Op. 2: Due canti No. 1 02:58
• 8 Wolf-Ferrari: Otto cori, Op. 2: Due canti No. 2 02:04
• Marco Enrico Bossi (1861 - 1925): A Raffaello Divino:
• 9 Bossi: A Raffaello Divino 04:26
• Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924): Requiem, SC 76:
• 10 Puccini: Requiem, SC 76 05:42
• Total Runtime 01:01:43

Info for Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri

Giuseppe Verdi was never a strictly God-fearing man. Nevertheless, he composed great sacred works during his lifetime. These include his "Messa da Requiem" from 1868. And in the last third of his life, the increasing return to his church music beginnings was reflected in a series of smaller religious works. These include in particular "Quattro Pezzi Sacri", which was published as a cycle in 1897 and thus only four years before Verdi's death. With this late work composed for soprano, choir and orchestra with soloist Gesine Nowakowski, the multiple Grammy Award-winning Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin open their joint homage to the church musician Verdi, which will be released on Sony Classical on 18 March. Under the direction of chief conductor Gijs Leenaars, choral works by Rossini, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari and the premiere recording of Bossi's "A Raffaello divino" will also be heard.

Verdi was particularly proud of the "Quattro Pezzi Sacri". And the concluding "Te Deum", which is one of his last great compositions, he considered to be one of his most perfect works ever. Verdi's second sacred composition on this new recording is the "Pater noster" for mixed choir a cappella, which was first performed in 1880 not in a church but at La Scala in Milan as part of a charity event.

The setting of the Corpus Christi hymn "O salutaris hostia" is one of the few sacred works by Gioacchino Rossini, a composer whom Verdi always admired. Thus, the genesis of his "Requiem" goes back to a communal composition in memory of Rossini. Conversely, Giacomo Puccini was to pay tribute to his great colleague Verdi with a short, deeply moving "Requiem", which he wrote on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Verdi's death.

Rounding off this recording of Italian choral music, also from the pen of Verdi contemporaries, are two repertoire rarities. These are Marco Enrico Bossi's (1861-1925) "A Raffaello Divino", written on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of the painter Raphael, and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's (1876-1948) "Eight Choruses" op. 2, from which two canti are included on this album. And as an unknown author once stated, these choral songs testify to Wolf-Ferrari's "great love(s) for Italian Renaissance music and may at the same time be counted among the most beautiful things that have flowed from the pen of the young composer".

Rundfunkchor Berlin
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Gijs Leenaars, conductor

Gijs Leenaars
As of the 2015/16 season Gijs Leenaars has taken up his post as new Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Berlin Radio Choir. Opening with an a cappella concert as part of Musikfest Berlin and working together with renowned conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, John Eliot Gardiner or Yannick Nézet-Séguin Gijs Leenaars has had a very successful first time together with Berlin Radio Choir. In December 2017 he conducted Berlin Radio Choir singing Arthur Honeggers “Le Roi David” together with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Cathedral. Furthermore he directed a celebrated a cappella programme at the White Light Festival of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York as well as the choir’s first ever tour through South America. Berlin Radio Choir visited the continent’s most important musical cities and performed the Brahms and Mozart requiem as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Born in 1978 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Leenaars is regarded as one of the most exciting choral conductors of the younger generation. He studied the piano, choral and orchestral conducting as well as singing in Nijmegen and Amsterdam. Directly upon completing his studies he embarked on a collaboration with the Netherlands Radio Choir (Groot Omroepkoor) in Hilversum. From 2012 to 2015 he was the ensemble’s Principal Conductor, working with such leading conductors as Mariss Jansons, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Valery Gergiev. He is a regular guest conductor of the Collegium Vocale of Ghent, Cappella Amsterdam and Netherlands Chamber Choir and has also conducted orchestras including the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, The Hague Philharmonic and Turin Philharmonic.

One of his special interests is contemporary music: Gijs Leenaars conducted the Dutch premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s “Vigilia” and prepared the choral works of György Kurtág with the Netherlands Radio Choir for a complete recording under Reinbert de Leeuw. His strikingly imaginative programming brings together the classics of the choral repertoire with seldom performed works from all periods.

This album contains no booklet.