Only a conductor of Robert Shaw's experience could hope to shed new light on a score the composer himself had so convincingly presented on record. Shaw finds a meditative gentleness in the music that is new and touching, and imparts a distant, sad feeling to the climaxes that deepens their ambivalence. The solo singing is on a par with that of Britten's recording--the diction is in fact better--and the choral singing is suffused with Shaw's unique magic. Telarc's digital recording is a bona fide sonic spectacular.

From America's greatest choral conductor, Robert Shaw, and his superbly trained Atlanta forces comes a recording of two settings of the Latin mass by Franz Schubert. Shaw and the Telarc recording team have won numerous Grammy Awards, they continue that tradition of excellence with Schubert: Mass No. 2 & Mass No. 6. In all, Schubert wrote six Masses over a period stretching from his school days to the end of his life. All but the last were written for specific performances in local churches, and all are practical works reflecting Viennese performance customs of the time. Mass No. 2 in G major was composed in 1815, when Schubert was 18 and just embarking on a teaching career. Simple and tuneful, it is a small-scaled work for chamber choir accompanied only by strings and organ. Soprano, tenor, and bass soloists contribute to the intimate beauty of the choral writing. The Mass must have gladdened the heart of his teacher, Antonio Salieri, who praised Schubert's first Mass with the words, 'Franz, you are my pupil and you are going to do me proud.' The product of a remarkable surge of music Schubert wrote in his final year, Mass No. 6 in E-flat major lay unperformed until a year after his death. It is basically a choral mass, as its five soloists (soprano, mezzo, two tenors, and bass) are used sparingly. The festive orchestra includes strings, timpani, and full winds except for tuba and flute. Its overall shape and construction follow traditional practice-more so than his preceding setting in A-flat. In harmonic language and details of text setting, however, we encounter a different Schubert, a Romantic who produced telling dramatic effect through his use of frankly pictorial writing and daring chromatic digressions.

The late Robert Shaw, who died in January 1999, had a long and fruitful relationship with Telarc, spanning twenty years and producing 41 recordings, eleven of which have won Grammy Awards. The current recording is the final one to be made by the conductor. Included on the second disc is a spoken interview of Shaw made by National Public Radio's Martin Goldsmith, host of 'Performance Today.' The interview was made in November 1998, just after the recording sessions for the Dvorak Stabat Mater, and features Shaw discussing his career, this work, and the state of the choral art. Portions of the interview were originally broadcast over NPR on April 2, 1999. The Stabat Mater was written by Dvorak in direct response to personal and private grief when he began the work, in 1876, he and his wife had recently lost a baby daughter, who had lived only two days. Other work intervened requiring the composer to set the Stabat Mater aside, but he soon resumed it in 1877 after losing two more children in quick succession-a baby daughter to accidental poisoning, and his three-year-old son to smallpox. The work was premiered in Prague in 1880, by which time Dvorak had risen from obscurity and poverty to become an internationally known composer. In 1883, the London premiere of the Stabat Mater met with such success that Dvorak was invited to come to England to conduct the work. He did so, conducting an enormous orchestra and chorus in the Royal Albert Hall in 1884.

A 'Greatest Hits' collection of some of the Chorus's most popular pieces.

Having given his lifetime experience and mastery to the great repertory of the choral literature, Robert Shaw addresses one of the greatest challenges of all-Verdi's greatest choral masterwork, the Requiem. Combining a succession of thrilling solo arias, duets and ensembles with some of the most inspiring writing for chorus, the great Italian master produced a unique tribute to the memory of one whom he regarded as a virtual saint: poet and novelist Alexander Manzoni. Balancing the devotional with the theatrical requires the utmost care, but care must also be taken to involve the listener in a continually unfolding drama. Robert Shaw, his expert singers, chorus, and orchestra, have achieved this. But there is more to offer on this superb album. Shaw has set down his interpretation of some of the best-known choruses from five of Verdi's major works-Macbeth, Don Carlo, Otello, Aida and especially, the well-loved Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco.