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If you ask a music professional about which piece was Giuseppe Verdi’s greatest work, the answer you get will not be an opera, the Four Sacred Pieces, or the cute little string quartet he wrote in a hotel in Naples. It will be the Requiem.

For the Dies Irae, Verdi obviously has learned his lesson from Berlioz. (This gets used a lot in TV commercials.) Catch the whispering in horror from the chorus. For the Tuba Mirum, Verdi uses his brass section like Berlioz. The bass intones the Mors Stupebit with a sense of trepidation. The Liber Scriptus features a mezzo applying some balm to the situation. Unlike Berlioz, Verdi brings back the Dies Irae to cap the Sequence.

Verdi: Requiem, First Part of Sequence (Maazel conducting)

There is a segue into the Quid Sum Miser and the Rex Tremendae. Here the approach is far different from Berlioz. It sounds more like the opera house.

Verdi: Requiem, Second Part of Sequence (Soloists Veasey, Domingo, Raimondo, Arroyo; Bernstein conducting London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus)

Here, Verdi opts for simplicity and brevity, as opposed to Berlioz.

Verdi: Requiem, Lacrymosa (Soloists Fleming, Urmana, Pape, Pita; Pappano conducting)

And we’re off to the races! The Sanctus is much livelier and less hushed than Berlioz. With the Agnus Dei, the tone returns to reverence.

Verdi: Requiem, Sanctus & Agnus Dei (Soloists Price & Cassotto; Karajan conducting at La Scala)

I memorized Verdi’s Requiem from a set of LP’s from the Boston Public Library when I was in the sixth grade. It happened to be the Moscow orchestra and Chorus, and to this day, I sing the “Lacrimosa’ with a Russian Accent.

I like Mozart & Berlioz...But Verdi’s Requiem is my favorite!

(The Russian “L” is almost a guttural consonant, unlike the Latin “L” which is a Resonating Consonant, and there are Lots of “L’s” in the lacrimosa! LOLOLOL)