Sacred Verdi

'Antonio Pappano... seems to have an almost mystical feel that always brings out the best in Verdi's music.' Daily Express

Antonio Pappano and his Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi with this programme of sacred choral music. The repertoire consists of the Four Sacred Pieces and, with soprano Maria Agresta as the soloist, the 1880 Ave Maria and the original version of Libera me from the Messa da Requiem. Pappano and his forces will perform this programme on 20 July at the Royal Albert Hall for the 2013 BBC Proms.

Although published as a collection, the Four Sacred Pieces were never meant to be performed together. They were written at different times and for different reasons and, consequently, are very diverse. Verdi worked on one or another of the pieces intermittently for nearly ten years and was apparently not completely satisfied with them and tried to stop them from being published. Fortunately for us, his publisher, Ricordi, and his friend and librettist, Arrigo Boïto, went ahead and published them. Pappano describes them as displaying "an amazing development in Verdi's mastery of harmony. … these are pieces that he wrote after Falstaff so they are his final testament, very, very important pieces."