BEETHOVEN: Missa Solemnis – Susanne Bernhard, soprano/ Anke Vondung, alto/ Pavol Breslik, tenor/ Yorck Felix Speer, bass/ Orchestra and Choir KlangVerwaltung/ Enoch zu Guttenberg, conductor – Farao

BEETHOVEN: Missa Solemnis – Susanne Bernhard, soprano/ Anke Vondung, alto/ Pavol Breslik, tenor/ Yorck Felix Speer, bass/ Orchestra and Choir KlangVerwaltung/ Enoch zu Guttenberg, conductor – Farao Pure Audio Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 5.0) 108054 (+ stereo CD), 74:55 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
The Missa Solemnis remains one of the great enigmas in Beethoven’s output. Originally started around 1819 and intended for the enthronement of Archduke Rudolph of Hapsburg as Archbishop of Olmutz, it ended up instead being completed in 1823 and premiered in 1824 in St. Petersburg for Prince Galitzine since the composer’s health was not in the best shape. It was, at least at the time, Beethoven’s favorite work, the best (he thought) that he had ever written. Since that time, along with the Ninth Symphony and the last quartets it has taken its place in this trilogy as the greatest the composer had ever penned.
But today we look at it a little differently; the work has almost been taken out of the religious domain and catapulted into some sort of esoteric realm where vague Gnostic elements rule. The notes to this release proceed along that relatively silly path, making assumptions about Beethoven’s intentions without the least bit of evidence as proof. We also tend to forget that Beethoven’s first inclinations were to write a liturgical work suitable for church and in fact originally intended for it; this is without question. So when I listen to recordings like Bernstein/Concertgebouw (DGG) and Shaw/Atlanta (Telarc) – both by conductors who sported a vague but sincere and personally devout religiosity of indiscriminate origin, I hear someone trying desperately to milk every bit of “hidden” meaning in the score, virtually ignoring the scaffolding that a “Solemn Mass” provides. Don’t get me wrong—I love those two performances dearly, and I do think that they mine this field with great expertise and emotion. But then when I hear a recording like the one under review, I feel as if I am hearing something more akin to what Beethoven had in mind from the start.
The paroxysmal passion of Bernstein is not to be found in this recording; neither the expressive nuance nor nonpareil choral work found in Atlanta. But what we do hear is a very impressively sung performance with excellent soloists that actually provides us with an idea as to how this work might have come across to its first audiences. It is way slower that the norm, which is usually over 80 minutes, but parts of the aforementioned recordings actually sound faster in many places than this one. Overall though, this is a performance (a live one, and why in the world did the producers feel that we needed to hear the applause at the end when the audience was deathly quiet for a few seconds and it could have been cut out?) that anyone with an interest in the work should hear. [It’s part of the excessive applause trend that seems to be plaguing live recordings of all sorts…Ed.]
This is a Blu-ray disc with a companion CD, and the sound of the lossless DTS surround is dazzling, taking full advantage of the medium’s stunning capabilities. Wave of the future? Quite possibly—but not at $32 bucks a pop, though the CD is available separately. I think that people are willing to ante-up for the advantages Blu-ray offers visually, but am not so sure about audio-only at that price as long as SACD is still out there. We will see. But this is a fine release. [With the BIS Pure Audio releases, the second disc is a SACD, but I don’t see how the price is going to come down with supplying any two discs of the same music.  I don’t think the upcoming Naxos Blu-rays will be doing that…Ed.]
— Steven Ritter