Customer Reviews

Coronation Mass [VHS]

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This is a once in a lifetime historical event captured on video which should occupy a space in everyone's home. You can witness the "splendor of Mozart" performed at St Peter's Cathedral with it's incredible accoustics. The voices of Kathleen Battle, Gosta Winbergh, Trudeliese Schmidt and Ferruccio Furlanetto fill and embrace the structure with Maestro Herbert von Karajan in command bringing perfection to a new and higher level.

You want to know what perfection means? Then, let yourself be taken to it by this video. It is a masterpiece of Mozart. It is Karajan at his best. The Agnus Dei is particularly fabulous. The soprano, Kathleen Battle, is really outstanding! But take into account that it is a mass. Therefore, to listen to the music, you must attend mass at St. Peter's Cathedral, Vatican.

This is an historical recording. No matter if you are a Catholic or not, strictly talking for a musical point of view, it's and outstanding performance. The audio recording, in spite was made 20 years ago, is technically impecable. There is not 5.1 soundtrack, but the stereo image and Saint Peter Basilica impressive acoustics is masterfully respected. You can hear the magnificent reverberance of the 330-feet-height dome after every musical segment. The voices are stunning, and the music performance is excellent, Karajan at his best, in this video you can see the great artistic dimension of this conductor. In historical terms, this is the very first time that an orchestra was granted to access and perform in the Basilica. Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Singverein excels in this Coronation Mass. The image is taken from a regular video recording so the aspect ratio is 4:3, and the sound is encoded in PCM and . Please remember the original recording was in 1985. The sound is also well recorded in the proper Mass passages, even the pipe organ sound, although recorded almost in background, unveils its majestic sound, and also is an interesting task to compare the Vatican Chorus and the Wiener Singverein, many of the singers were well-versed to the religious office because they were members of Vienna Court Orchestra, an ancient ensemble stablished by Maximilian I.
If you are a Catholic, for sure you will appreciate the respectful editing of this High Mass. Karajan leaves in the recording the principal parts of the Mass, with John Paul II as the celebrant and the incredible Basilica as the stage, this constitutes an incredible document for the future, to remember JP II as perhaps the most influential Pope of all times and Karajan as one of the most influential classical conductors of our contemporary times.
If you are not a Catholic but appreciate fine arts, this video surely will fullfill all your expectancies with an excellent orchestral performance, impressive sound and outstanding artists in stage.
Highly recommended!