Beethoven: Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123

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He has achieved something remarkable, a performance that is heaven-storming despite the small forces employed. The key is that every singer in the chorus and solo quartet has been encouraged... — Fanfare, July/August 2021 More…

Release Date: 3rd Jun 2016
Catalogue No: 88985313592
Label: Sony
Length: 81 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

3rd June 2016
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Beethoven: Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123

Work length1:21:26

Album only

Laura Aikin (soprano), Johannes Chum (tenor), Ruben Drole (bass), Bernarda Fink (alto), Elisabeth Kulman
Concentus musicus Wien, Arnold Schoenberg Chor
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

I. Kyrie

Track length9:56

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II. Gloria: Gloria

Track length5:47

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II. Gloria: Qui tollis

Track length4:55

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II. Gloria: Quoniam

Track length7:03

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III. Credo: Credo

Track length4:13

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III. Credo: Et incarnatus est

Track length5:00

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III. Credo: Et resurrexit

Track length10:40

Album only

IV. Sanctus: Sanctus

Track length3:44

$1.30

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IV. Sanctus: Praeludium - Benedictus

Track length13:07

Album only

V. Agnus Dei: Agnus Dei

Track length7:05

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V. Agnus Dei: Dona nobis pacem

Track length9:56

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Recording of the Week, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Beethoven's Missa Solemnis

3rd June 2016

Katherine listens to the recording of the Austrian conductor's final public performances.

When Nikolaus Harnoncourt retired from the stage in December last year, it was his express wish to release the broadcast recording of his last project, Beethoven’s monumental “Missa solemnis” as his personal legacy.

The "Missa solemnis" concerts at the Styriarte Festival Graz and the Salzburg Festival in summer 2015 were his last public performances. This recording of Beethoven's late masterpiece was made from material captured at the Graz concerts and rehearsals.

As a result of his life-long research on Beethoven, he conducted the work for the first time with the Concentus Musicus Wien on period instruments, the Concentus is joined by the Vienna based Arnold Schoenberg Choir and a handpicked solo quartet.

Reviews

July/August 2021

He has achieved something remarkable, a performance that is heaven-storming despite the small forces employed. The key is that every singer in the chorus and solo quartet has been encouraged to push expressivity to operatic lengths. Ironically, this might be the least authentic aspect of the reading; church choristers in Beethoven’s time were trained to be pure, restrained, and untheatrical.

August 2016

This is a remarkable account of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and, in one important respect, an unusual one. For though it is in no sense lacking in drama, it is in essence a deeply devotional reading...Harnoncourt’s performance has an atmosphere you might more normally expect to encounter when listening to a piece such as the Fauré Requiem.

3rd June 2016

it soon becomes apparent that to read his last account of this unsettled and unsettling work as a definitive Last Will and Testament would run counter to Harnoncourt’s restless, continually probing musical spirit...it strikes me as an uncommonly apposite farewell from a musician whose life’s work centred on questioning rather than affirming, and encouraging his performers and audiences to do the same.

26th June 2016

It’s not perfect — the violin solo in the Benedictus sounds scrawny — but no performance of this daunting masterpiece can be. The soloists, Laura Aikin, Bernarda Fink, Johannes Chum and Ruben Drole, blend wonderfully.

21st July 2016

unsurprisingly for Harnoncourt, there is a sense of searching throughout the performance...it’s a gentle performance overall. But Harnoncourt’s masterly control of the larger structure means that within those parameters, the moments of jubilation make all their impact.

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Recording of the Week, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Beethoven's Missa Solemnis

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