Classical music reviews

Many of the pieces of music on this disc are masterpieces and all are played to perfection.Barber's Adagio appears twice:in orchestral and choral versions,and the Agnus Dei choral is given loving treatment by the Robert Shaw festival singers.The familiar but never tiring Shaker variations of Copland and the exquisite Lullabye for strings of Gershwin are two quintessential slices of Americana performed by the Cincinnati Pops under Eric Kunzel.The most beautiful work of the collection may be the Anhran from flute concerto by Christopher Rouse.This little piece may find its way on many recordings in the coming years.With all around excellent performances and gorgeous sound this disc is definitely a keeper.

This Telarc CD is a compilation of selections from a dozen different albums. It features slow movements by such greats as Barber, Copland and Gershwin and includes beautiful works by lesser known composers. The album is stylistically varied but is uniformly beautiful, meditative and relaxing. I particularly enjoyed Thomas Canning's "Variations on a Hymn by Justin Morgan". However, I purchased this CD for the final piece, Barber's "Agnus Dei". This particular performance by the Robert Shaw Festival Singers is transcendental. Each time I listen to it, I feel like I've left the here and now and am somewhere that it better and very beautiful. I have other recordings of Agnus Dei that are nice, but seem kind of stiff in comparison to this one. This CD comes with my highest recommendations.

Adagios may be slower pieces, but this CD is definitely not simple background music. The tenderness of the Gershwin "Lullaby" and Barber's haunting "Adagio" demand your attention. This is music that soars and takes the listener along.

Hi,

I think this is a very nice Perlman collection...Beautiful works selected from different Musical Eras and different styles...And Mr. Perlman is very succesful in all these types of masterworks...you can easily feel the Bach's crying words...Mozart's fun...Brahms's passion...Sinding's virtuosity...Wienlawski's Romantism...Khachaturian's hurry...and Rachmaninov's sentiments....and many others...
and also Israeli Orchestra did a very good job on this performance...They are like the third hand of Perlman...They work and feel like a family...
If you are a Perlman Fan, you must have been already bought this CD...if you are not or new to this performer it is time to meet him..and it is the way to meet him...go!!!

If you enjoy Itzhak Perlman and do not have very many of the selections on these discs, here is one way to get hold of them. Each of the four discs boasts a theme: 1. Baroque and Chamber Music, 2. Violin and Orchestra, 3. 20th Century Music, and 4. The Lighter Side. The selections are naturally limited to recordings Perlman did with EMI, but this represents quite a bit of his overall output. Among the recordings of the Sibelius Violin Concerto that I've heard, the one included here with Andr� Previn and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is one I enjoy immensely. I like the cinematic sweep of the Korngold Concerto; the Bach Violin Partita; the jazz selections written by Previn. There isn't much that I don't like here. Here is a compilation where variety is a key factor. If you're into variety and Perlman's style, this set gives you plenty of both.

Almost 30 years ago, at Penn State while I was a student there, Itzhak Perlman visited, gave some lessons to aspiring violinists and gave the most astounding, memorable concert I've ever attended. Quite to the contrary of the fellow from Baton Rouge, Perlman was the consummate teacher who critiqued and encouraged students with far lesser talents, and he did it with class. This collection contains a number of recordings I already have but consider them worth having again in such a superbly arranged collection. His arrangements on the Hungarian Dances are the best!

Keith Jarret made his first mark with "Koln Concert", the 1975 double vinyl solo piano concert CD that actually made some dents in the charts. Imagine that! (It was the same era when Tangerine Dream made the charts with "Ricochet", can you imagine it today?)

This CD gives one 70 min. set of Jarrett's 3 night stand at the Blue Note (the complete recordings are also available as a box set), and what a marvel it is. The best is the lead-off track, the standard "Autumn Leaves", a 26+ min. blow-out of the trio (joining Jarrett are Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums), with bass and drums getting their due in solos, but Jarrett's piano playing is what drives this track, as elsewhere.

If you are not a a die-hard jazz fanatic (as am I), don't worry. This is music (in its most general sense) at its best. Buy it.

As many people say, the Standards is the greatest group in the contemporary Jazz. Moreover, if you let me, I would say it is almost our only hope in the contemporary Jazz. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette have been creating really exciting Jazz without disappointing us for twenty years. This is simply incredible. In each album, they improvised real music based on the Jazz standards from different angles. "At the Blue Note" is no exception. Actually, since it starts from the one of the most famous Jazz standards "Autumn Leaves", you would have the feeling I mentioned above even stronger. Of course, you can hear their play of Autumn Leaves in "Still Live" and "Tokyo 96", too. Yet, "Autumn Leaves" in this album is even more impressive in two aspects. First, it really speaks and captures your attention. Although Keith is one of the greatest Jazz pianists (for me, the greatest), sometimes his play after the beginning theme is not as eloquent as his extension. But this idea does not apply to this "Autumn Leaves". He did let us hear his creation from the beginning. Second and the last, it really flows. There is no gap between the song and the extension. From the beginning to the end, it is totally controlled as well as greatly improvised by all of the three. You do not have to say "It is great but..." It is simply a great performance. If you like Keith Jarrett or the Standards, you will easily understand what I mean here.

This is a wonderful example of Jarrett's unique style and approach to contemporary jazz. My first exposure to his music was the Koln Concert and a concert that he gave in Toronto at Roy Thompson Hall a dozen or so years ago. I have continued to listen to him and his trio ever since and this album, which I am listening to now as I write my review, is as fresh and magical as any of his that I have heard. On another Note, I am on my way out this afternoon to pick up the re-released At The Deer Head Inn -- another amazing contribution by Jarrett, Peacock and Paul Motian (on drums).

This is a sensational, witty and wondrous adaptation into the universe of Goldberg Variations, and anticipating myself to purists opinions, I find very acceptable and worthy to listen, despite all the stylistic concessions it undeniable owns.

On the other hand, this evidence confirms what we have so many times stated: Bach is the oldest musician of the future and as the cosmic level of this everlasting genius and carves in relief the genius is always contemporary.

The most important aspect to remark, probably resides in the fact this "pagan version" if I may, securely became an informal invitation for many listeners who still had not crossed over to the universe of the academic music, and because of it they did it, at last.

Recommended, even for the academic purists.

Jacques Loussier has always been a genius, but this has to be his greatest triumph yet. Aria and 30 variations, each distinctly and unmistakably 'authentic' in form, melody, harmony, and mood -- and yet each a masterpiece of classic jazz interpretation. From the latin pointillism of Variation 4 to the flat-out boogie of the Aria, it's all pure music, pure enjoyment, pure love of Bach and of jazz.

The performances are perfect; the arrangements inspired; the experience unsurpassed. What more could anyone want? And to top it all off, the tempi and voicing are clearly in homage to Glenn Gould's late recording of the Variations, which has its own different kind of perfection.

Reading the reviews made by some Terrible critics of Chick Corea playing Mozart, I guess what they'd write here about this...indeed, Corea played very well.
On this work, Jacques Loussier Trio is fine and was necessary to give more perspectives to Bach works, as played today by "machine pianists", as I call frozen classical dead blind pianists. That's why this CD is so fantastic. It revives Bach. Bach is Alive. Bach is Fun, sometimes, poetic. I hate those interpretations in which the interpreter always plays Bach as a machine, as if he hadn't feeling! Bach is JOY!.
And this Joy is certainly delivered here.
Buy This CD. Five Stars on it!

I have heard most of the performances on this two CD compilation elsewhere, with the notable exceptions of Herman Krebbers' performance of the Violin Concerto (However, judging from his work as the soloist in Kondrashin's celebrated Philips recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, I am sure that his performance of Beethoven's violin concerto is exceptional.) and Piano Concerto 0. I have heard better performances of Beethoven's Triple Concerto, most notably from the Beaux Arts Trio (most recent Philips recording with Kurt Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra) and the Trio Fontenay (with Elihu Inbal conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra); I don't think the chemistry is good amongst pianist Claudio Arrau and his fellow soloists, though theirs is a credible performance. Without a doubt, the finest performance on this two CD compilation is Kovacevich's spellbinding performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. His dramatic playing is steeped in lyricism and first-rate technique; it is among the fastest versions I have heard. Kovacevich's confident playing is superbly backed by Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

This is hands-down THE most compelling, fiery, regal Emperor concerto I've heard. Kovacevich doesn't make any pretense of playing Beethoven "politely" (as some other pianists have done, to the detriment of the music, I feel); he dives into this score and powers his way through it with an energy and ferocity I haven't found anywhere else. Listen to the sharp accents and incredible power in the opening of the concerto's third movement, or the fortissimo series of chords near the end of the first movement's development section. There just isn't a moment when Kovacevich isn't giving 100 percent of his energy and concentration to the music, and the result is an amazingly focused, powerful performance. Davis and the London Symphony are similarly brilliant, delivering a hammerblow performance of their own that complements Kovacevich note for note. The obvious exception to all this energy, of course, is the slow middle movement, which is treated with almost palpable musical tenderness--but no less precision. The other performances on this CD set are competently done as well, particularly the "Little" E Flat Major piano concerto, which is a lightweight sparkler that's a real treat to listen to. But I have other personal favorite performances of most of the other works on this 2-CD set, whereas this Emperor concerto is unbeatable. Look at the other works as enjoyable added bonuses to complement the Emperor, this performance of which is worth the price of this CD set by itself.

Este CD doble incluye 4 obras de concierto de Beethoven insuperables, primero una version de coleccion del concierto N� 5 "Emperador" Kovacevich es un solista de excepcion y Colin Davis hace que cualquier orquesta suene esplendida, resumiendo un concierto grandioso.
Continuamos con una joyita, el triple concierto (para abreviar)
es bellisimo, es simple pero claro para escuchar porque hacer que el cello no desaparezca al lado del violin ya es complicado y se le a�adimos al piano, la obra de un maestro.
Szering, Starker y Arrau hacen su trabajo aunque al chileno le toca hacer el menor. La New Philharmonia es una gran orquesta e Inbal es un director correcto y pulcro.
Seguimos la audici�n y tenemos el formidable concierto para violin, tenemos a Krebbers en una interpretacion soberbia, y que junto al inigualable Bernard Haitink hacen que esta sea otra pieza grandiosa, Haitink es en todo caso mas solemne que algunos otros directores que harian de este concierto y lo han hecho una pieza mas elocuente.
Finalizamos con un plus, no soy experto en Beethoven y no conocia este concierto para piano, es una bella obra algo menor pero que tomando el contexto nada mejor para una coleccion de todas las obras de Beethoven. Un CD de precio economico sencillamente genial.

Wim Mertens is my favourite minimalist along with Philip Glass. This soundtrack has it all. Great themes - probably the most memorable themes of any other soundtrack and intense atmospheric playing. The production of this CD though is very 'minimal', more so than any CD you'll ever buy for $20. I can not think of any other CD of that price range lacking all the essentials. A pitty.... 5+ * for the music, 1 - * for the package.

I have not seen the Peter Greenways'film.. and maybe
I won't do that.. I am afraid to get dissapointed because
for me this CD reflects so much creativity and passion.
Three tracks are for me some of the best piano compositions ever:

1.Struggle for plaeasure
the piano, like Life,
begins slowly, softly,
marking the rhythm gently
then it becomes
sharp needles spining and falling from the sky
The wind instruments
are the vital fast breathing to survive Life

2. 4 mains

the piano marchs
the piano spins
the piano climbs
the piano falls

3. Close cover
If I have to choose the soundtrack for my life
it would be this piece

If you like nice orchestral music, often stirring emotions of love and heartbreak, but still uplifting, go buy this album. It's that easy. I first heard a song from Wim on a Cafe Del Mar album and had to buy his entire album. It was obviously worth it and I think you'll agree when you listen to it. So go buy it.

I got this CD for the Brahms variations initially, and went straight to it on my first listening. I felt that the variations was technically and musically solid, but did not stir me as I would have liked it to. Subsequently, I "forgetfully" played the Schumann Fantasie, and was quite really quite stirred then! Mr Cohen may have spent more of his emotional energy on the Schumann, than on the Brahms, but this CD is still one of my favorite.

I was intrigued by the program when I bought this CD having these compositions in my library performed by many great pianists. However, I was unprepared for the glorious playing, the emotional power of the interpretations, the beautiful tone, the giganitc solid technique. Arnoldo Cohen is a very great pianist and, more importantly, a musician with unique insights into the music and its structure. I also purchased his recordings of Liszt and Brazilian piano music--My initial impressions were confirmed. What can be done to bring this magnificent artist to the attention of world wide audiences. The CD notes report that Cohen is also a violinist and an engineer--What a phenomenon.

Arnaldo Cohen had never been on my radar scope until this CD came my way. I know I will have to seek out whatever else he's recorded, at least in the High Romantic repertoire. Like the earlier reviewers, I'm giving an all-out rave to this disc. The two main pieces here - the Schumann Fantasie in C and the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Handel - although from the Romantic stable, are very different from each other. The Fantasie is an unbuttoned emotional outpouring; the Brahms an orderly, even academic set of variations (although not without moments of high drama). It would be somewhat unusual for a single pianist to play them equally well. When I listened to the Fantasie I was bowled over but wondered, 'OK, how will he do with the Brahms.' I needn't have worried.

The Fantasie is so emotionally driven that it is almost willful, but it never gets out of control and is utterly convincing. There is a good deal of manipulation of tempi and dynamics for expressive reasons. It reminds me somewhat of a concert performance I once heard by Yuri Egourov, although it is much more virtuosic, and Lord knows that's needed in the treacherous second movement. I have one question, though: What is with the ending of the third movement? Cohen interpolates some harmonic changes and a short recap of the ending of the first movement into the ending of the third. I've never heard this done before and it certainly isn't what's printed in my Edition Peters score. I do know that Charles Rosen recorded some of Schumann's earlier versions of his piano music some years ago but never heard those recordings; could this be one of those variants? It makes no real difference in the long run; the performance is still one of the great ones. But the first time that variant ending sailed past my jaw dropped.

The Brahms starts properly, with chaste trills and runs, but by Variations 3 & 4 Cohen's Latin temperament begins coming out and, although it never gets out of hand, there is more heat and passion than one ordinarily hears in this piece. When appropriate he returns to the more neatly classic approach in the variations that require it (e.g. Var. 12). The overall effect is certainly exciting! At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but as I listened again and again it came to feel right. I went back to recordings by people like Serkin and Brendel and they began sounding, well, tame. I think it comes down to the fact that many great pieces can tolerate widely differing interpretive approaches and it was nice to hear this one.

Schumann's Arabesque concludes this well-filled disc (TT=66mins.) and is rather more mainstream (although somewhat faster than usual) than the two big pieces. No matter; it is nicely done and a satisfying conclusion to the recital.

Arnaldo Cohen is clearly a major pianist. If I were in charge of things, I'd make sure he had major bookings and recordings. He deserves to be heard.

Finally, there is the amazingly low budget price of this CD. You really can't afford NOT to buy this one.

Highest recommendation.

Reviewed by Scott Morrison

Brahms escribio sus conciertos mas bien en tiempos tardios de su carrera, esperaba poseer mayor capacidad y experiencia, y parece fue una buena opci�n.
El concierto para violin es hermoso y vibrante el primer movimiento es solemne, cautivante; el segundo una sonata suave, s�til, grandiosa, para terminar con una apologia al solista, un empuje al virtuosismo. Isaac Stern es un gran violinista, reconocido y que aqui nos demuestra sus capacidades, estas grabaciones hechas en los 60 nos muestran a un Stern jovial, efervecente y compenetrado con la obra.
El doble concierto es de esas joyitas que aparecen de vez en cuando, el violin y el cello en una lucha y en una simbiosis maravillosa, quien se luce mas, quien alcanza mayor fulgor. Rose no acompa�a a Stern en este concierto, se disputa el honor de hacerlo mejor. El primer movimiento agradable, vivaz se extiende haciendo disfrutar cada uno de sus pasajes. El andante es soberbio, el gemido de los instrumentos solistas es electrizante, un sonido penetrante, alucinante.
Para finalizar una fiesta, una reuni�n alegre de los instrumentos, el violin y el cello en un intercambio y no una lucha, es alegre, vivaz, fant�stico.
Ormandy junto con la orquesta de Filadelfia acompa�an a Stern y Rose de manera colosal, cada sonido y acorde en total sincron�a, cada instrumento a su mayor potencialidad. Dos conciertos presentados a plenitud donde solistas, orquesta y director hacen todo para lograr lo mejor. Imperdible

This performance of two of Brahmes most beautiful concerti is truly unbeleivable. isaac stern is one of my favorite violinists and this shows him at the peak of his form. He combines subtle humor and a remarkably light touch into the heavy dramatic passages that the violin concerto is famous for. you can easily tell how involved he is with the music. the cadenza in the first movement is sheer technical brilliance, and yet stern's tone in the second movement needs little flourish. He is truly one of the masters of the instrument. Rose plays a highly dramatic part in the double concerto. he uses the full extent of the cello to produce moving sound, at times warm and at times powerful. Ormandy does a superb job in maintaining a perfect set of dynamics with the philadelphia orchestra. He makes the orchestra very forceful when the soloists rests, but never gets in stern or rose's way. It is interesting that one of the greatest violin concerti of all time was written by a pianist. part of the greatness of the piece must be attributed to Brahmes's close friend, one of the great Romantic virtuosi, Joseph Joachim. the influence of one of the giants of the violin is thoroughly felt in the composition.

I found that this recording of Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra playing Brahms is almost perfect. Just like his piano Pieces, including his famous Concerto No.2, they portray some kind of majestic feeling which makes them sound good. His double concerto sounds great, as Leonard Rose does well accompianing Isaac Stern. Ormandy does a great job conducting the whole thing too. The Violin Concerto is one of my favorites, as once again Stern sounds great. Though Johannes Brahms was not a String player, being scrictly a pianist, he does a great job "improvising".

This group was a complete disapointment to me (along with Pulsar and Novalis). After reading a lot about how good they were i gave them a listen and it is NOT for every prog rock fan...So watch out! There is some terrible singing in here and also no great musicianship as some say. This is, my opinion of course ...but if you think of Prog Rock and bands like Yes, PFM, Area, ELP, Bruford, Hatfield and the north, etc come to your mind, . then this may not be to your liking...Give this a listen before buying!!

This is an excellent piece of music that effectively juxtaposes acoustic pastoral sections with more avante garde and aggressive passages. While there are superficial similarities to early Nursery Cryme period Genesis, the intricate ensemble work that can be found in Genesis is absent in Au Dela du Delire. Rather, Ange creates wonderful atmospheres through the use of the mellotron, organ, and heavy bass playing. While the vocalist certainly has a distinctive voice, it works perfectly within this framework. Excellent!

ANGE is a very pecular group.progressive rock,cool, violence sometime but with words only. not commercial: many french people don't know Ange very well, but the clever and poets love Ange..
Voices are pecular,strange, not very good voices, but it's ok for the sentences, music is very good.
every cd is a concept album. you can love one and hate an other.
good cds: from the begining to 1992, after, as you want. live albums are always good.
my best ANGE album is"emile jacotey"(1975) very slow,cool,like pink floyd,but with sentences, it's a fairy tale. but emile jacotey really exists, he's an old french highlander who told them many old stories.
"Au dela du d�lire" it's really crazy fairytales, anti clerical,middle-ages stories.
an other cd,"a propos de", it's many good reprises of famous french writers,composer and singers like jacques brel,georges brassens,charles aznavour,jacques dutronc,michel polnareff
Jacques Brel was very happy for the version of" a jeun"

but i don't like every ange album(like "vu d'un chien(1980)""la gare de troye(1983)""moteur(1981)""ange "(1990) and after 1992.
my best choice, best albums:
-Emile Jacotey(1975)
-A propos de(1982)
-Au del� du delire(1974)
-Caricatures(1972, remaster 1998)
-compilation"Ange" 1999, blue paper cover, ref:546315-2 universal, (songs from 1972 to 1976)
and the long format 3cd album with little book and pictures:
"Ad libitum" (1999) ...indispensable gift, like christmas elvis album!
also some live albums just for fan clubs(one every christmas).
you can find some very rare VHS SECAM live videos, but rare even in france.
Le reve est a rever...(christian d�camps) philippe tenand Paris.

What is wrong with you people? I remember listening to this recording at 14 and understanding even then that this was absolutely one of the worst performances of any work I've heard! Now, 11 years later, I still lament the fact that I learned this work primarily through this recording (and the Davis/LSO recording, not much better). At that point, because of this I thought performances of this work were SUPPOSED to be a bunch of people screaming at the top of their lungs and a big jumble of instruments not being played together correctly in time. Then when I was old enough to be able to read the score I realized that this recording was a disaster in so many ways, as it still sticks out in my mind today.

Sometimes my friend and I still think about this recording and laugh. I have once or twice entertained the notion of buying this recording just so I could scoff at it, and to gain a better apprecation for the truly great recordings that are out there (GARDINER, Solti/Berlin, Toscanini)

Didn't any of you notice that the orchestra and the chorus are rarely able to play together? They seem to be playing on two different planets... and it just ends up sounding like a murky, muddied mess. What happened with getting it all together at the "Et resurrexit/Et ascendit?" Or what about the Quoniam? It seems Karajan overlooked the "Allegro" in "Allegro Maestoso," and just trudged along with sick sounding tenors and violins that can't outdo each other enough in allargando. As it is, there isn't one time in the whole piece where Karajan keeps a steady tempo.
And the tone of the chorus -- ah, the chorus! How truly irritating! When I first heard "Qui sedes ad dexteram patris," I went straightway to an encyclopedia to check if there had been any casualties -- It truly sounded as if the concert hall had collapsed!

I guess this was the style back in Karajan's day in the early 60's, and I'm utterly thankful to God that I didn't have to live through those times. Now, I fully realize that there were many great conductors doing wonderful things during that period. I'm a large fan of Fruhbeck de Burgos, as I have worked with him many times, as well as a great admirer of Solti, Levine and Boulez. I guess that as a Generation Xer (or whatever we twentysomethings are called nowadays), what we envision when we think of 50's and 60's is the demigod Karajan, and all his big, over-the-top glory. Frankly, I have never had any use for his conducting... I don't understand it. I don't understand the big "conductor" pretenses -- the serious facial expressions, the grandiose tempi and the use of heavy orchestral sonorities that charcaterize him. I guess I belong to a generation of musicians that was taught that the composer has already incorporated the correct interpretation into the score, and that a clear and precise reading by conductor and musicians draws that out, not that the conductor comes to the score with all his crazy "interpretive" ideas and plays it in a way that might have been fashionable for 1960's Europe, but is more likely nothing the composer would even recognize as his own work. (Not to jab at Beethoven's obvious auditory impairment)

I have been spoiled for the last 10 years by the wonderful recording done by John Eliot Gardiner and his forces! I can't help but be devoted to this recording. The period instruments movement has been the movement of my generation, and I believe it can arguably be considered one of the most successful movements in modern music history. Thank goodness there are folks like John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock and Marc Minkowski on that bandwagon, because if left in the wrong hands, I realize it had the potential to fail miserably. We all owe John Eliot Gardiner a debt of gratitude for his superb, enlightened performances, especially of Bach, Handel and Beethoven, but even of Holst and Kurt Weill!

As for you, Karajan, you were an enigmatic man... one that I admittedly will never understand. But now you've gone on and we have your baffling recordings to remember you by. They may be unfathomable, but they sure keep me thankful for the strides we've made in performance today!

Oh yes, I almost forgot... the only thing that saves this recording is the late Fritz Wunderlich; no other like him, really!

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 Vienna Singverein, Karajan's favorite--they appear in all his recordings. The solo quartet captures Leontyne Price in her prime--her glorious soprano is incomparable in this part. Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, and Nicola Zaccaria join Price in a passionate, involved performance that brings more excitement 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 great event.

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

1966 Berlin (DG): From here to the end all recordings are with the Berlin Phil. This one 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 stellar: Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, and Walter Berry. Wunderlich was the greatest lyric tenor in Germany and sounds wonderful. I don't care for Janowitz's piping, hooty soprano, which sounds more like a woodwind instrument than a fully expressive voice, but I concede that I am in the minority. 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 haven'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 the performance shows no advance 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 hundreds 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, while the live 1959 Salzburg must be counted one of those events that no one will ever forget who was fortunate enough to be present.

A wonderful recording. This twosome is now available as a bargain two-fer, and the new transfer helps these older recordings immensely. I have always loved Karajan's interpretations of Beethoven's later works (as another reviewer said). His 9th's, the three I have heard (1962, 1977, 1984) are all excellent, but the 1962 version is the best of that bunch. Similarly with the Missa Solemnis, between this release and his later digital (1985) effort for DG, this (1966) version features an all-star quartet as well as the BPO at its performing peak. I cannot recommend these recordings strongly enough. And the "Coronation" Mass is fabulous too! Listen to his rendition of the 'Credo', simply wonderful!

This is my choice for this recording. The only real competition I see for the Missa Solemnis is the Solti/Berlin performance from 1992, which features better sound and faster pacing, but a similar overall "Beethovenian" feel.