COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: Teldec Ultima
WORKS: Missa solemnis
PERFORMER: Soloists; Arnold Schoenberg Choir, CO of Europe/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
CATALOGUE NO: 0630-18945-2
This is a live recording from the 1992 Salzburg Festival with a highly impressive team. The COE is one of the finest bands around and its wind players excel. Harnoncourt (or the resonant acoustic) overpowers the excellent chorus with exuberant trumpet and drums, but otherwise they cope brilliantly with this Olympian work’s complex contrapuntal passages and cruelly exposed top notes. The vocal soloists make a fine blend and Marieke Blankestijn plays the violin solo in the Benedictus with sensitive refinement. Christopher Fifield
Beethoven: Missa solemnis
This is a live recording from the 1992 Salzburg Festival with a highly impressive team. The COE is one of the finest bands around and its wind players excel. Harnoncourt (or the resonant acoustic) overpowers the excellent chorus with exuberant trumpet and drums, but otherwise they cope brilliantly with this Olympian work’s complex contrapuntal passages and cruelly exposed top notes. The vocal soloists make a fine blend and Marieke Blankestijn plays the violin solo in the Benedictus with sensitive refinement. Christopher Fifield
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm