This has long been the standard by which other recordings of Verdi"s Requiem are measured. Many others have better sound engineering, you may prefer a soloist or even the chorus (perhaps a later group trained by Robert Shaw) in one competing version or another, and it is quite possible to prefer the period-instrument sound of John Gardiner"s taut interpretation. But no other conductor has matched the sheer intensity with which Arturo Toscanini translates the titanic and fearful vision of his friend Verdi into sound. This vision, which includes the end of the world, the dead rising from their graves and the assignment of each one either to heaven or to hell, is the climactic point of Verdi"s epic style. The fillers are mostly interesting and inspiring, though Hymn of the Nations, a collage of national anthems, is one of Verdi"s creative low points. --Joe McLellan