Internationale Bachakademie by Various, Frá (2023/2023), Hljómsveitarstjóri Hans-Christoph Rademann, Kultur- und Kongresszentrum - Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany

Her works are at the top of the opera charts. However, "Rigoletto" and "Maskenball", "Tosca" and "La Bohème" conceal the fact that both Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini took their first musical steps as organists. Puccini composed the Messa di Gloria in 1880, at the end of his studies; Verdi, who was over 45 years his senior, wrote the four sacred pieces at the end of his career in the 1890s. The younger man's work (lost until 1952!) is cheerful and full of life; the Pezzi sacri Verdi move calmly, urgently and at the musical level of his successful operas. Due to their different instrumentation and forms (choir a cappella, solo quartet and double choir with large orchestra), they are rarely performed as a cycle in concert. A fascinating opportunity, then, to see another side of the great Italian masters.