Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

5 star:		(2)
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Thi carefully and painstakingly s remastered 2003 release of a live 1940 Missa Solemnia with the pure and soaring voices of Minalov, Bjorling, Castagna,and kipnis rises to the heavens. It is truly the greatest performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis as conducted by Maestro Arturo Toscanini. I cannot put this music down once I begin listening. It is incredible and most highly recommended to the discerning music lover.

I can only echo others who say how great this performance is. Toscanini creates a performance of great dramatic power and beauty. Under other conductors this is often a rather episodic work, but Toscanini knits all the parts together into a strongly unified whole, while giving each part a high degree of characterization and expressiveness. The 1940 sound presents a quite realistic picture of the orchestra, chorus, and singers, though obviously less detailed than a modern stereo recording. I would give the Music and Arts release of this same performance a higher rating for recording quality, however. The severe clarity of this release means that in the quieter passages you hear more detail, but the compression of the passages with full orchestra and chorus only seems to become more apparent. There are also some good single-disc releases of this, such as one on the (as I recall) Italian IDI label.