Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Mass In C - Missa Solemnis

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The Missa Solemnis is in effect an awesome choral symphony of an unheard of scale - one that only Beethoven could have pulled off. The performance of the Missa Solemnis by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus led by Sir Georg Solti and Margaret Hills is absolutely FABULOUS!!! This performance is absolutely deserving of the Grammy it won in 1978 for Best Choral Performance. Note that the Missa was performed in 1978 but reissued in 1997. And it is still selling like hot cakes. Sir Georg Solti is indeed worthy of the honor of winning more Grammys than any other artist. Solti won 31 Grammys. His archrival Karajan only won 15 Grammys.

The cast of soloist is superb. Lucia Popp is absolutely fantastic. Listen to her at the opening Kyrie. Yvonne Minton is a superb contralto. Mallory Walker and Gwynne Howell are fabulous singers.The choral singing is First Class and UNSURPASSED. The Chicago Symphony Chorus is among the best choirs in the world. The audition their singers every two years - even those who are incumbent in the choir!!! This is one performance that I return to over and over again. The music is extremely soothing. Great listening for frayed nerves. Guaranteed to calm your nerves.

At mid price, this CD is VERY VERY STRONGLY recommended.

There is a bonus - Chailly's well liked Mass in C major thrown in. The performance is fine - great singing, great performance but not the best in the world. But who cares? The Missa Solemnis itself is worth the price and should be the real reason you are buying the CD. Nevertheless, the Mass in C is well performed and it is one performance you will go back to over and over again.

Solti's legendary 1978 Grammy Award winning Missa Solemnis - at this incredible price makes this CD a MUST BUY!!! It is a MUST for every serious Missa fan. Even if you have one hundred other Missa Recordings, this is a MUST!!!!

Ths soloists are incredible and the Chicago Symphony Chorus is just that - the world's finest symphony chorus. Quite rightly so because the Chicago Symphony Chorus has earned more Grammys than any other SYmphony Chorus in the world.

Buy it. You will never regret it.

Solti's first Missa Solemnis was an also-ran from the start, earning unfavorable comparison with Klemperer's famous account on EMI. But time has made it shine brighter. Decca's recording is much clearer than the EMI one, the CSO plays with incredible virtuosity, accuracy, and decisiveness, and above all the CSO Chorus gives an astonishing account of the choral part. Solti lacks Klemperer's emotional depth, but he's also not as ponderous in the fugures. His solo quartet features a weak, bleaty tenor (Mallory Walker) but the others are very good, especially the gleaming Lucia Popp (whose light soprano is aided greatly by the microphones, as are all the other soloists--the quartet is placed far forward). The reviewer here who thinks that the chorus is off form has rocks in his ears. Solti's interpretation blazes along in the style of Toscanini.

In sum, a sleeper among Missa Solemnis recordings, and probably the most purely exciting ever recorded, if not the most profound. The digital remake from Berlin is slower, in edgier sound, and features the Berlin Radio Chorous, an impressive group who are nonetheless no match for this one. In addition they don't receive as clear a recording of their contribution.

The Missa Solemnis doesn't get any better than this 1978 Grammy Award winning version. The choral work is FABULOUS. The Soloists are FANTATISTIC!!!!!

The Mass in C though needs improvement. The Gardiner version of the Mass in C is better.

I originally purchased this recording two years ago for the Missa Solemnis; the C Major Mass was a nice coupling, but if you are buying for that piece, John Eliot Gardiner's recording is a more inspired reading. This Mass in C interpretation is completely uninspired with dirge like tempi and a most amatureish sounding choir. Susan Dunn is completely miscast as the soprano soloist (as are the remaining soloists). To the listener's detriment, Chailly opts for a more romantic interpretation versus a more classical, which ultimately ruins the piece.

I purchased this recording on the strength of Solti and Margaret Hillis' chorus. Unfortunately, the chorus for the Missa Solemnis does not live up to its usual brilliance. There are pitch problems as well as energy problems, and at times the chorus sounds so tired that they won't be able to make it through another phrase. The performance is not a total Lucia Popp makes a stunning Soprano soloist (though a bit operatic at times) rounded out by a respectable trio of soloist. The bass being the weakest--there are times where he is actually a beat off and stops singing all together!!

Your money would be better spent on John Eliot Gardnier's versions of either piece.

I find that Gardiner's Missa is rather martial. Gardiner's Missa is kind of a glitzy affair because Gramophone praised it to the skies, and gave it 2 awards - Choral Award & Record of the year Award. It certainly has its merits - orchestral playing and a chorus that is astonishing in its virtuosity. But you know what? Like pepechenique, I found it kind of martial - it is superbly played no doubt but it is lacking in its ability to move. The playing is rather bland. Just listen to Klemperer's recording, which is fantastically intense. Or Solti's first recording - which though it puts the soloists unduly in the spotlight, has a 'feeling' which is missing here. However, the biggest surprise for me was Solti's SECOND recording with the Berlin Philharmonic. That recording topped it off. It is the best I have heard - for me, it certainly outshines this Missa and Solti's first recording.
Solti's 2nd recording has the distinction that the balance between chorus, soloists and orchestra is superb. For once, you can actually hear the orchestra in many parts of the Gloria, Credo and Sanctus with the chorus, whereas in other recordings, the orchestra inevitably gets swamped by the chorus when the chorus comes in at full force. And the Berlin Philharmonic is at its virtuosistic best!! They play magnificently - and when I say they are magnificent, they are MAGNIFICENT!! I agree with Gramophone's assessment that the soloists (Varady, Vermillon, Cole and Pape) give the impression of listening to each other and knowing their 'ebb and flow' in the piece - when they are important and when they should recede. THIS is really rare. PLUS all 4 soloists sing very beautifully - none of them are trying to 'stand out' but take their place dutifully (as they should) in the fabric of the whole piece. One of Solti's great attributes as a conductor was his constant development as a musician. In his second recording, he surpasses his first recording in the understanding of the architecture of the piece. In his recording, some parts of the Missa drag somewhat and doesn't quite gel together. Here, his understanding is total. The parts flow logically from one to the next, there's no unduly slow tempi, and for the first time in my history of listening to the Missa Solemnis, I actually UNDERSTAND the architecture of the piece as a whole. I used to listen to sections without seeing the big picture, now I see the big picture of the Missa in Solti's 2nd.

Gardiner, in my view, has missed some of the insights in Solti's second recording. As another example, in the Et Vitam Venturi fugue, Solti's transition from the slow to the fast and back to the slow is fantastic. When he ends the fast section (which is as fast as Gardiner's - maybe a few seconds slower), you still feel the forward momentum of the music. In Gardiner's case, the transition from slow to fast is splendid (but any conductor can do that). But when he ends the fast section, I feel that the music stalls somewhat.

This first recording has the fabulous Lucia Popp in top form, and the magnificent Chicago Symphony Chorus. But the balance is sometimes off - soloists too prominent or orchestral detail obscured. I shall keep searching for the perfect Missa Solemnis (which doesn't exist).

This Missa is absolutely superb. Outstanding recording and playing from one of the world's greatest conductors. At an incredible price too.

The Kyrie is beautifully sung. The soloists are unmatched. Popp is just fantastic and is Minton.

The Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra demonstrates why they are considered the best orchestra in the world. Solti too demonstrates why he is considered one of the greatest conductors in the world.

And of course, we have the famous Decca sound - unmatched. And absolute MUST HAVE CD. Even if you have all the other versions of Missa, this CD is a MUST MUST

Solti has shown himself to be just what he is reputed to be - the greatest conductor in the world. In the superconductor class with Karajan and Bernstein.

As an opera conductor, Solti has the advantage over many other conductors who conduct only orchestras.

If you want a Large Scale Missa Solemnis, this is THE VERSION to get. I have 9 different 'Large Scale versions and this is by far the best. Awesome Choir. Awesome Soloists. Awesome Orchestra. Awesome conducting. Awesome recording. Awesome price.

If you want period instrument Missa, get Gardiner.

While I understand those who prefer one major recording of this difficult work or another, I have go with this '78 Solti as the one to own one if you aren't a Missa Solemnis junkie like me. I have over 10 recordings, from 1940 Toscannini to von Karajan through Klemperer and Gardiner and Hereweghe, including the Concertgebouw w/ Bernstein.

Having conducted it once and sung in it twice (Colin Davis, John Oliver), gives me a bit of insight I think. Or not. Not sure, but many of the objections to one recording or the other seem to be more engineering flaws to me, while some have very bad spots musically.

Those are in order,

1)several sections of the Janowitz/von Karajan are flabby conducting, quite unlike the von Karajan of R Strauss and Beethoven Symphonies. Not excused by "expansive" reading jargon. He is not in control of his resources--and there are wrong enrtances and wrong notes even! And I must say, the Wien Singverein should not have attempted this work with a few of the sopranos in the choir .The choral parts sound far away, distant, and still, the sopranos screech--yes, the tessitura is high, but if you ain't got the notes, DON'T RECORD IT. HOWEVER, von Karajan's en of the Dona Nobis Pacem is by far the best reading I know of. And the vocal quartet is not matched (but close in others) w/Janowitz, Ludwig, Wunderlich, Berry.

2) The "early performance practice", "period instruments" crowd goes gaga for Gardiner and Hereweghe. And I admit there is much to admire in the Gardiner: sharpness of line, delicacy (even when not called for though), and spirit. It is altogether too fussy for me though. It's like a prissy old maid decided to make "Mr. Beethoven behave." The Hereweghe is even worse, with many, many distracting sections of staccato chords, for what end I cannot figure out. The churchyboy reviewer who tore a new one for the von Karajan recording needs to understand one thing though: this fussier-than-thou tradition will become old hat by the time he's 50-60 and he will be justifying his taste to the second generation after him, too (I am not that old yet, but i see this all the time). I agree with him IN GENERAL about the recordings though.

3) Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orch. and Chorus is by far the best chorus on record and several soloists are nice, but the tenor is SOOOO BAD I cannot listen to it. He would be bad singing Tim McGraw or Michael Bolton stuff, but here his lack of any vocal technique is truly embarrassing. And Klemperer's famous dragging tempi (and boy, do they ever drag) in the fugues is so off base that it's distracting. I want to set it from 331/3 to 78 (you youngin's will have to ask an oldster what that means)

4) The Bernstein is very up and down, some sections spine-tingling and others sounding violent and frenzied. Not a good frenzy like good sex, but an "escape from the war zone" frenzy, like years of therapy are needed.

Solti has a couple places, but the 78 Chicago Symphony recording has more pluses than any others, without nearly as many minuses.

DC

I think it's because of the time lag between posting and the message appearing - probably didn't realize it.