Album

You know the old debate over the Missa Solemnis, the whole "Is it sacred music for the concert hall or secular music for the church" question? Don't worry about it. The issue doesn't come up in this 1994 recording of the work with Georg Solti conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. For Solti, the answer is an obvious one: the Missa Solemnis may have a sacred text, but it is in every way a dramatic work for the opera house. But what a dramatic work! Remember, this is Solti, the screaming skull, the conductor who transformed Wagner's Ring into the Greatest Story Ever Told, but whose power and conviction made it work at a supremely high level. What else could he do with the Missa Solemnis except play it to the last row in the bleachers? That isn't to say that Solti's Missa Solemnis isn't unbelievably dramatic. The playing and singing are strong and virtuosic, plus they sustain an unbearable level of intensity through the entire length of the work. The problem is that the whole performance is unbelievable and unbearable, a deadly combination in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, one of the highest and holiest works of musical art in the history of humanity. London's sound is clear, but otherwise unimpressive.

© James Leonard, All Music Guide

CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Mass in D, Op.123 (a4, 'Missa Solemnis') Work 1:16:59 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Chorus Chorus/Choir, Julia Varady Soprano, Iris Vermillion Voice, Robin Gritton Chorus/Choir Director, Georg Solti Conductor, Vinson Cole Tenor, René Pape Bass, Kolja Blacher Violin
1	1.Kyrie (Assai sostenuto)	9:12			$1.49
2	2a.Gloria (Allegro vivace): Gloria in excelsis Deo	5:11			$0.99
3	2b.Gloria (Allegro vivace): Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis	5:56			$0.99
4	2c.Gloria (Allegro vivace): Quoniam tu solus sanctus	6:21			$0.99
5	3a.Credo (Allegro ma non troppo): Credo in unum Deum	4:06			$0.99
6	3.Credo (Allegro ma non troppo)	5:29			$0.99
7	3c.Credo (Allegro ma non troppo): Et ascendit in coelum; 3d.Credo (Allegro ma non troppo): Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen; 3e.Credo (Allegro ma non troppo): Amen, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen	9:31			$1.49
8	4a.Sanctus (Adagio): Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus, Deus Sabaoth; 4b.Sanctus (Adagio): Pleni sunt coeli et terra; 4c.Sanctus (Adagio): Praeludium	5:16			$0.99
9	4d.Sanctus (Adagio): Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini	10:17			$1.99
10	5a.Agnus Dei (Adagio): Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi	6:34			$0.99
11	5b-d.Agnus Dei (Adagio. Presto): Dona nobis pacem 1. Agnus Dei 2. Dona nobis 2	9:06			$1.49