Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

 

If you can get behind Karajan's slow tempos, I think this is a Missa Solemnis performance to love. After all, as in his Beethoven symphony sets, Karajan never lets the music sound slack; he prefers intensity and torque no matter the tempo.

The star of this recording are the four vocal soloists, with only the Vienna Singverein coming off as rather old-fashioned. Some of the choral blame must be put on Beethoven though, for he asks a lot of his singers. Even if you don't have a Blu-ray audio set-up, this release comes with a RedBook CD as well.

A review from 2020

This DG reissue of Herbert von Karajan’s 1966 performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis features a remastered single CD alongside an audio-only Blu-ray. I will let the technophiles go more in-depth on the specifics of the transfer, but the Blu-ray is a leap beyond its last CD incarnation. The chorus is less muddy aside the Berlin Philharmonic, with the men’s sections especially getting a solid voice. The orchestra has a wider presence without the glare or glassiness from earlier, certainly no congestion at its countless climaxes, and the soloists are afforded space around their sound, particularly the soprano and tenor. This is outstanding sound, obviously moreso in the Blu-ray, but the CD is no slouch either.

Beethoven’s monumental Missa Solemnis is a work of confounding complexity and taxing vocal writing that borders on the criminal. Aside from the inherent grandiosity of the mass setting, Beethoven seems out to prove his abilities with fugal settings; and apart from the extreme ranges he writes for voice, each are thrilling, if not a bit too numerous, including some tricky polyphonic solo voice work on top of the typical choral settings. While there are plenty of Beethoven-isms throughout, there are a couple surprising harmonic turns, and the final Dona Nobis Pacem is full of unusual turns to keep the listener on their feet. In the end, the overall sheer level of difficulty has kept the term masterpiece from being applied to this composition, but perhaps time and modern virtuosity will change perceptions.

At 86 minutes, Karajan’s vision of the Missa Solemnis may seem flabby (the über devotional Giulini on EMI comes in only two minutes longer); after all, the briskly-efficient John Eliot Gardiner comes in at 70-minutes flat (Zinman at 65 minutes!). It is certainly true that Karajan leans into the pastoral elements of the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, preferring lovingly Romantic spirituality over rushed time beating, but the Gloria and Credo are played for thrills, and if they aren’t particularly breathless, the torque and tension behind these performances hide any worries with timings.

If you love the Berlin Philharmonic from this era, this recording will not disappoint. While I have known Karajan as a string guy, and they always sound lushly wonderful, after all listen to that opening of the Sanctus, but the winds really come into their own here. Coming from a renowned oboe hater (me), Berlin’s oboe from Karajan’s time is just so succulent, and the winds and brass overall have such remarkable presence in this recording. This aspect might actually highlight the aforementioned pastoral elements I hear in this recording, and it’s great. Listen to those wonderful wind scales at the end of the Credo and tell me you can’t be converted. Similarly, the countless climaxes are wonderfully punctuated by the brass, and Karajan, in the lengthy middle sections, verges on virility and aggression. The DG sound is full sounding, with a solid bass line.

This performance is renowned for its singularly spectacular solo quartet, and despite the top-notch singing of Janowitz, Ludwig, Wunderlich, and Berry, I think it is the fact that they work so well as a quartet, a single performing entity, rather than individual ability and beauty. Wunderlich’s early death makes his presence all the more treasurable, but each are remarkable contributors. The uptick in sound quality afford the quartet an excellent balance.

If there is a deficiency in the recording, it is the Vienna Singverein chorus. Beethoven’s extreme ranges for the sopranos, ones that hector the singers by just hanging up in uncomfortable registers, turn into vocal caterwauling at times. Those who prefer modern choral timbres may balk at Vienna’s sopranos. This remastering, on the other hand, thankfully brings out all of the choral section entrances in those fugal passages aggressively, and while occasionally the thick-set symphonic choral texture hides out with the orchestra, generally the voices leap out in front of the orchestra.

As far as old-school recordings of the Missa Solemnis go, I generally hold to the ones by Otto Klemperer, a granitic performance now on Warner Classics, an intense Raphael Kubelik on Orfeo, a deliberate James Levine on DG, and a surprisingly spiritual Sir Georg Solti from the 70’s on Decca, in high esteem. For my money though, the sound on this Blu-ray (and the remastered CD) puts those recordings to shame, and Karajan’s soloists are simply irresistible.

This new release on DG won’t convert any newcomers who prefer their Beethoven lean and breezy, but you are in the wrong place anyway with The Great Von Karajan. For me, his performance provides robust thrills and orchestral spirituality, but best of all, musicianship and atmosphere that isn’t relinquished through speed and thin textures, nor are they given a hard, cold percussive impact that infests many newer interpretations. The soloists are fantastic, and if the chorus is taxed, particularly the sopranos, they are there for the gusto. A contemporary interview with Gundula Janowitz, in-depth booklet notes, and full song texts come with the physical media. Additionally, this Missa Solemnis recording is divided into 20 tracks, a huge amount compared to its recorded brethren.

 

 

 

Works
Missa Solemnis in D Major, op. 123

Soloists
Gundula Janowitz, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor
Walter Berry, bass

Performers
Vienna Singverein
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Year: 1966; 2020
Total Timing: 86.01

 

Don't mistake the 86-minute runtime to equate to a slack or uninvolved performance.

On the contrary, this is high-tensile performing, with the beauty of the Berlin Philharmonic and a starry quartet of soloists.

 

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