Search - Beethoven, Barenboim, Cso :: Missa Solemnis

A satisfying Missa, now in bargain release

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This well-recorded Missa Solemnis gives us a chance to hear the CSO and its famed chorus in full cry. I wouldn't rank Barenboim's conducting with the great ones -- or even the nearly great -- because he's trying to channel the ghost of Furtwangler, indulging in irritating, arbitrary slow downs and speed ups. On the plus side, he has a good group of soloists, none of them big names except for Waltraud Meier, and two huge assets in the orchestra and chorus. In the late Eighties into the Nineties Barenboim tackled several of the big bow-wow choral masterpieces, and this is probably his most successful effort, along with an equally satisfying Verdi Requiem.



Note: Be sure to look for the single-disc budget reissue on the Elatus label."