Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

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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.

Karajan made a specialty of this great and difficult work, which he recorded no less than five times. I don't believe in duplicating reviews here at Amazon, but I am posting this one under each performance--they range from a live radio broadcast in 1959 from the Salzburg Festival to a digital recording from 1985 in Berlin. In general the sound improves as time goes on, and except for the last recording, the soloists are uniformaly world class.

Since Karajan's readings rank among the best ever made, I'd like to give a brief rundown of each:

1959 Salzburg (EMI): In many ways this is the dream recording. The orchestra is the Vienna Phil, the chorus the Singverein of vienna, Karajan's favorite--they appear in all his recordings. The solo quartet captures Leontyne Price in her prime--her glorious voice is incomparable in this part. Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, and Nicola Zaccaria join Price in a passionate, involved performance that brings more excitment and commitment than any other. The big downside is the tubby mono sound--you are aware of listening to a gigantic work through your home radio. If you can adjust your ears and listen through the sound, as it were, this was obviously a very great event.

1960 Philharmonia (Testament): This EMI commercial recording came out originally in mono, ltter in muffled stereo. It's been cleaned up by Testament for reissue, but the chorus is sitll fairly murky and distant. Otherwise, this is a very satisfying performance, the second best of the five in my opinion. The solo quartet is makred by actually singing and not shouting, and they blend beautifully, which only makes sense because Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, and Gedda had sung togehter for years on EMI. They would go on to sing a superlative Verdi Requiem under Giulini. The bass again is Nicola Zaccaria, another old hand at EMI but not of the caliber of the other three. Karajan's conducting lacks the fiery intensity of the live Salzburg performance from the year before, but everything is relative. This is still a strong, cimmitted reading in every way.

1966 Berlin (DG): From here to the end all the recordings are with hte Berlin Phil. This recording came out nose to nose with the famed Klemperer set from London (EMI), and on the whole Klemperer is superior, thanks to somewhat clearer sound and an unsurpassed chorus trained by Wilhelm Pitz. Karajan's quartet is once again stelar: Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, and Walter Berry. Wunderlich was the greatest lyric tenor in Germany and sounds wnderful. I don't care for Janowitz'a piping, hooty soprano, which sounds more like a woodwind instrument than a fully expressive voice, but I concede that I am in the minoriyt. The sonics are a bit glaring, and they get ocngested in the massed passages with chorus and orchestra. DG may have improved the sound in the 1996 reissue on a bargain two-fer; I hven't heard it, although there's no doubt this recording is at times uncomfortably shrill.

1975 Berlin (EMI): Karajan has proceeded with at least one new Missa Solemnis per decade. This recording features another stellar quartet, with Janowitz held over from the DG set and sounding excactly the same. She is joined by Peter Schreier, Agnes Baltsa, and Jose Van Dam. All except Schreier were Karajan favorites at the time. They sing very well, even though one hears a noticeable drop from the earlier quartets. The recorded sound here is just as congested in tuttis as on the DG set. In general this performance shows no advances on earlier readings and in my opinion is the most negligible of the five.

1985 Berlin (DG) : For the first time one notices a leap forward in sound quality, thanks to digital multi-miking. From the outset there's more orchestral detail, cleaner separation of voices, and good highlighting of the vocal quartet. The engineers weren't stuck with a single microphone placement, which never could capture chorus, orchestra, and soloists satisfactorily. Unfortunately, when the big tuttis come in the Gloria, the chorus and orchestra become just as congested as before. This is due to Karajan's insistence on using a very large chorus; it always muddies when the music gets very loud. Over the years Karajan didn't drastically change his approach to the Missa Solemnis, and since this 1985 recording has the best sound, one wishes it could be recommended as the best document. It is badly let down, however, by the quartet, consisting of two unknown women--Lella Cuberli and Trudeliese Schmidt--who aren't exactly great discoveries, along with the light-voiced tenor Vinson Cole and a dry, aging Jose Van Dam.

With enough time and space, one could detail hundrds of differences between these performances. In 1985, for example, the Gloria shoots out at rocket speed compared to the other four performances. But this way madness lies. For me it's enough to know that all but the 1985 are great performances, the sound is about even between 1966 and 1975, with 1960 in serviceable stereo, and the live 1959 Salzburg must be counted one of those events that no one will ever forget who was fortunate enough to be present.