The Best on the Market
05/30/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Klemperer's recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is indeed a classic one - and right so. His soloists may not be as good as Karajan's (Wunderlich, Janowitz etc), but they are doing a honorable job. What is more important is his excellent choir (in 1964 still the "good old" Philharmonia Choir) - and a spacious conducting, very Klemper-like, and unequalled till this day. I lost my breath the first time I heard the Gloria in excelsis - if you don't know your Klemperes you don't know what a masterwork Beethoven has created here. The completing Piano Fantasy has got many of the same caracteristics. Sadly, Klemperer (no, it must be the ignorant EMI-post-Legge crew) chose Barenboim as soloist. He never got as far into Land of Music as the old maestro, but who does nowadays??!"