Search - Beethoven, Price, Ludwig :: Missa Solemnis

Breathtaking

Derek Lee | St. Paul, MN USA | 11/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The previous reviewer gave very fair and perceptive comments about Karajan's Missa Solemnis on record (all 5 times), but I'd like to go into more detail about this particular recording. The interpretation is the very best I have ever heard. While Karajan's later studio recordings vary from fine to splendid, and there is no shortage of excellent readings from Klemperer and others, this recording is a unique cathartic experience, unlike anything I've heard before. All you need to do is listen to the beginning of the Credo, some of the most difficult music by Beethoven to bring off, and be overwhelmed by a sense of creation, like Furtwangler at his most inspired. In fact, there's a sense of spontaneity combined with structural integrity and sheer beauty of sound that I could imagine would be very much like how Furtwangler conducted this work, which he considered Beethoven's greatest. The performance quality is excellent, the Vienna Philharmonic lending it's uniquely warm sound to the occasion, and including the Singverein when it was still in excellent shape, as well as a superb soloist team that, as Karajan favored, gives almost instrumental color to their performances. Some people cannot take this kind of singing, prefering a more declamatory, operatic style (for example, the soloists on Klemperer's studio recording), but Beethoven essentially wrote this piece in a symphonic style, so I think instrumental clarity is perfectly appropriate. The only caveat is the recording quality. If you're expecting a digital, stereophonic experience you'll be dissapointed, but if you're used to historical recordings like I am, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much depth and clarity there is to this sound. I suppose you should decide where your priorities lie. If you are looking for a modern, studio, hollywoodized performance, you should look elsewhere. If you want a truly powerful experience that goes from heart to heart as Beethoven promised, I have not been able to find a Missa Solemnis to recommend more than this one."