This version makes a welcome return to the catalogue. To my mind it is preferable in almost every way to Solti's earlier, Decca version. Following live performances in Chicago in 1977, it catches the sense of a real occasion as compared with the studio-bound Decca. The vivid recording, though it has become somewhat glaring in its new, digital form, allows us to hear a great deal of scoring often obscured in more distant recordings. The well-trained choir evinces a keen response to the text, although their tone isn't always Italianate in colour. These attributes are all made evident in a wonderfully immediate ''Sanctus''. Solti's approach often recalls that of his mentor, Toscanini, in both its fire and its sensitivity over detail, though movements do not always have Toscanini's overall coherence, nor that special drive that carries Toscanini and Karajan, in his unrivalled video version (DG (LaserDisc) 072 142-1GH, 9/91), to the heights of inspiration.
In most respects Solti has better soloists here to those on his Decca set. The surprise to those who know her only in less formidable music is the strength and authority of Baker, here at the height of her powers and in superb voice, in Verdi. Her distinction of phrase, involvement in her work, care over dynamics is evident everywhere and sufficiently rare in this work as to be specially lauded. Listen, as an example, to the dark sorrow at ''Judex ergo'' and the radiance of ''Lux aeterna''. Her whole distinguished reading is crowned by the benediction at ''quia pius es''. She matches Price in lustrous tone for the ''Agnus Dei''. Price offers a lovely piece of singing in the Andante section of ''Libera me''. Earlier, while singing with Verdian amplitude, her lovely voice sometimes comes under strain, especially when compared with her younger self chez Reiner and Karajan. Luchetti's highly individual tenor may not have the sheer bite and conviction of Pavarotti's (for Solti and, even better Karajan), but his simple, restrained ''Hostias'' is as moving as any tenor's on disc. Van Dam is a tower of strength throughout though he is a shade phlegmatic in expression.
This would not be my first recommendation for the work, which must remain Toscanini, Giulini or Karajan (his video set), but it is a performance that is persuasive in many ways, one with which I always return to with pleasure. Its price range is also in its favour, even though the Requiem on its own is short measure these days. Certainly if you want Solti in the piece, this is the set to have.'