Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

A classic account of titanic choral music

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 08/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded during a 1978 concert in Amsterdam and released worldwide a year later, Bernstein's last recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is emblematic of the conductor's final period when he re-recorded core repertoire incluidng Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler with European forces in the final decade or so of his life.



This was the first really exceptional recording of the score I owned. When it was new, I constantly compared it to the then two LP recording led by Gunther Wand on Nonesuch (re-released a few years back on Testament). Next, I recorded a cassette of it from a Sunday morning broadcast by my local PBS station. Later, I acquired it on CD and listened to it against the score I used when I sang in a performance the first time.



Originally released on two full priced LPs late in the analog period, this performance was issued as two CDs early in the digital era. Now it is available on a single CD of 81 minutes' duration in a high gloss, high depth, good sounding digital recording. Never has the music come forward with as much depth and definition as here.



Bernstein's address is decidedly devotional which accounts, in part, for the relatively lengthy duration. Most middle ground recordings take 75-77 minutes while slow pokes like Levine can stretch it out to 84. I generally prefer the faster versions but have always been entranced by Lenny's recording.



He is substnatially aided by glorious playing from the Concergebouw Orchestra and wonderful choral singing by the Hilversum choir, whose tenor section is outstanding. Given that any choir is judged by its tenor section, this tells you from the opening kyrie that this will be a special recording of a very festive occasion.



Three of the four soloists -- soprano Edda Moser, tenor Rene Kollo and bass Kurt Moll -- deliver what I would characeterize as helden accounts of their parts. They sing as if they are participating in a Wagner opera or perhaps in Beethoven's own Fidelio, which was a specialty of Bernstein's. The alto, Hanna Schwarz, sings more roundly and eloquently throughout, neither as heroic as her peers nor as greatly projected. While this mixture may seem odd, the singers make a thrilling quartet and aid Lenny's overall interpretation.



From a conductorial standpoint, two parts, more than any others, expose his or her relative genius or shortcomings: the Benedictus section of the Sanctus, where the conductor must keep the vocal and violin soloists, orchestra and choir in sync at about 65 and andante; and the "mental illness" section that opens the final Presto transition of the Agnus Dei, which Beethoven uses as a musical bridge from the eccelsiastical text to the sublime finale.



It has always been clear that Bernstein demonstrates a mature and complete understanding of the composer's wishes in these sections, just as he demonstrated his understanding of Fidelio and the Ninth Symphony on his famous video, "Celebration in Vienna" some years earlier. While Lenny was among the most wilfull conductors of his (or any other) time, he withheld virtually all of his personal affectations in this concert rendering, allowing the composer's voice to speak universally.



This is very unBernstein, even late in his career when his recordings became significantly less passionate and included tempi judgments that slowed more each succeeding year. Compare this performance to his late Beethoven symphony set with the Vienna Philharmonic, or his hyperpersonal recordings of the Schumann symphonies with the same orchestra, to show the reserve Bernstein exhibited when making this historic performance.



It is this sacrifice, if you will, that transforms this from peripatetic to perfection that strides atop the Mt. Olympus of recordings. The digital recording not only delivers the sound faithfully and more realistically than ever before, the production team gives us 21 tracks on the recording, Arnold Werner-Jensen's note speak eloquently of the music, and the choral text is detailed in five languages.



Short of an SACD recording, I can hardly imagine a recording of this score being any better. Of the dozen of so copies I have owned, the half-dozen live performances I have witnessed, and the two productions in which I have been a member of the chorus, this is clearly the most memorable, both musically and in religious context, of any of them. Now, captured on this ADD recording, it can remain that way for years to come."

Traditional, but outstanding

Leonardo | Argentina | 07/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Missa solemnis is a truly extraordinary work. One of the most difficult to perform, both at technical and structural level, because of the merciless demands LvB put on singers and instrumetalists, and because the conductor must be aware of overall structure and spiritual impact the work has. This last aspect is often overlooked, at least to my taste.

Great performances? I have listened several months ago to Klemperer famous recoring. In the net there are some glowing reviews but others are not so well impressed. kemperer has a truly magnificent, monumental, and at the same time "clear" sound, both in chorus and orchestra, but, alas, I remember does not have "elasticity", flexibility, and can be ponderous at times. Not with Bernstein.

Gardiner? I dont know well. They say he has a great Monteverdi Choir, superb soloists and lively tempi. Gramophone says is the best, the choice recording. Maybe.

Karajan 66? Great quartet, great orchestra, poor chorus, and frankly, very slow tempi at times. Indeed, a performance longer than 81 min is too slow.

Levine? A great oportunity could have been, but was lost, because of the conductor. Truly great soloists, in name but also in performance (perhaps better than here), clean choirs (important in this work), extraordinary wiener philarmoniker, but the tempi management show he is not fully aware of how this work must be performed. Sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow.

And Bernstein, at last. He had recorded in the 60's with NTPO. I dont know it. Later he recorded it in c.1979 with the Concertgebouw forces and choir of dutch radio. It was released in a 2 CD format and later,as technology improved, here, in a 81 min single CD.It is a live recording recorded perhaps in Concertgebouw.

The approach is traditional. Don't expect anything resembling "period". The soloists in general are good individually and as a team. the best team? Perhaps not, but all acceptable. In a live performance it is difficult to stay perfect all time. Karajan and Levine have perhaps better quartets. Soprano Edda Moser has a rich voice. When she wants has a beautifull, creamy voice with not too much vibrato, but in other moments she sounds too "presurised", as I have read in a review. Is it wrong? Perhaps not so much in a traditional performance, and justified in the context of the many "hot" points the work has. the singer is clearly flexible. Could have been better? Oh, Yes!!! (Gundula Janowitz, under Karajan 66). But acceptable here.

Alto Schwatz is a delight, with a vibrato more focused, more under control. The same can be said about tenor rene Kollo, pure delight is listening to his part. More stylish than Domingo, I think.

Bass Moll is also very good, his voice is younger, fresher than under Levine, but there the beginning of the agnus dei is sung with greater emphasis.

As I have said, as a group are quite good.

The choir is very good in general. Is very responsive to the demands established by Beethoven and by Bernstein. Its sound is not so individual, so "particular", as is Monteverdi choir, the swedish choirs under levine or the philarmonia choir under Klemperer. The choir here has a little vibrato in upper voices which can be disturbing in places like the Kyrie. is it all wrong? It depends on the listener. If you are accustomed to pure singing, perhaps yes; if not, you will find choral singing is allways responsive to the music and to the flexible demands Bernstein put on them. In the Kyrie, perhaps, the "woobly" sound may reflect human fragility (Kyrie is a humble plea for forgiveness).

Orchestra is very good in general. Balances in general are good, not so bad but not so clear as other groups with a more special sound, like Gardiner period band, the Wiener Ph, with its special sound, and Klemperer Philarmonia, which is also more interested in orchestral colours than average orchestras. What I mean is that I dont find a particular "sound" here. Nothing special, but nothing wrong, as in all performers here.

What is not so average is Bernstein. here Lenny shows he has absorbed the piece and this is made clear after you end listening. He is quite flexible in a work of extremes. The Kyrie, perhaps, is the weakest part, sounds too "thin", slow (although 10 min is not so slow, compared to 12 min Levine or Karajan). Surely is not so imposing as Klemperer and can be a calculated effect. The Gloria begins with truly violence, clarity is not the main focus as the insistent flow of the music, which takes your soul as a twister. Pure fire here. Then in the qui tollis section there is a quite, welcome contrast (Levine does not understand this). The Quoniam begins with a magnificent timpani crescendo which is so easily overlooked in other recordings, after that the quoniam is quite rightly taken as a lively section. The fugue of gloria is magnificent, quite exciting. The last Amen, sung by choir, has an impact beyond words. The credo begins perhaps with not so emphasis but later is more engaging. the Et incarnatus is sung with great tranquility and the "passus" passage is appropiately very melancholic. The best part is the last section, bernstein makes his singers to almost become dement believers. The 2 fugues are amazing and the last, quiet notes sung by soloists interrupted by 2 "Amen, amen", makes you cry with tears. There is so much beauty here ...

Sanctus begins quite slowly, followed by the pleni sunt and osanna, sung both by choir (LvB said the soloists should, but I think makes sense by choir). The preludium is lugubrious, under Lenny seems like the Mahler adagietto but still effective. The Benedictus has in Krebers a great solist, which floates aboove the performers with wonderfull serenity. Tempi is quite right. the last osanna fugue sounds monumental, followed by a blissfull violin solo.

Agnus dei begins right, but at the solo part may be more intense. it's that lenny makes this section grow in passion until the dona nobis, which comes as a fresh relief. After a glorious performace behind, this section is the crowning of a better than average interpretation of the mass. Lenny uses a flexible approah and after the last, magnificent chord it may make you convert into a Lenny fan, as he did to me.

Definitely nothing resembling an ordinary performance. Only a experienced great artist like Lenny can put together this vast work.

"

Bernstein + Beethoven = An Epic Performance

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 02/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the vast array of the choral music repertoire, few works have ever been as demanding on the artists that perform them as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis has proven to be. Finished in 1823, at roughly the same time he was completing his Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, like its ultra-popular companion, is a huge and daunting work, made even more so by the fact that Beethoven was completely deaf by that time. And like its companion, this masterpiece of the choral repertoire was not really fully understood until much later on.



There have been dozens upon dozens of recordings of the Missa Solemnis over the decades, but one which stands out in particular is this one, made before a live audience in 1979, with Leonard Bernstein on the podium. With a fine quartet of vocal soloists, the Hilversum Radio Choir, and the world-reknowned Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Bernstein brings out the absolute brilliance and scope of this mighty masterpiece in ways that even old-school German kapellemesiters rarely ever did. The portentous and stirring "Kyrie" is given one of the most touching readings on record; and the "Gloria" is given one of its most violent renderings, particularly right at the opening. Bernstein's tempos here are, not surprisingly, slower than they were when he recorded this piece in 1960 with his New York Philharmonic, which went 77 minutes; this one runs 81 minutes, which is somehow squeezed onto just one CD by the Deutsche Grammophon engineers. And yet, it doesn't feel slow, because Bernstein's understanding of and enthusiasm for the piece are there in each note, with that great Concertgebouw Orchestra, chorus, and soloists giving every ounce of themselves.



Anyone wanting to find out just how great the Beethoven Missa Solemnis is need only look for this recording. It is a performance of certifiably epic proportions."