# Best Beethoven Missa Solemnis..........



## Itullian

What's your favorite recording of this awesome work?
Thanks :tiphat:


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## flamencosketches

I am not a huge fan of the Missa (yet, anyway), but I have the Ormandy/Philadelphia and find it good. I know the Bernstein/Concertgebouw is supposed to be really good too. I've heard parts of it and was impressed. Then there is the Gardiner/ORR which I also enjoyed.


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## KenOC

For me, the finest _Missa _I've heard is Gardiner's more recent effort.


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## jimsumner

If you want a traditional account, the EMI Klemperer is awfully hard to beat.


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## Mandryka

Itullian said:


> What's your favorite recording of this awesome work?
> Thanks :tiphat:


The one that friends of mine are saying changes everything is the new one from Suzuki. I've not heard it but I would definitely check it out if I were you. I also haven't heard Herreweghe.

From the ones I know, top tier are Harnoncourt, possibly the second more than the first, and Michael Gielen.

Some old fashioned recordings are well worth a listen - Horenstein, Krauss, Silvestri, Karajan 1975.


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## joen_cph

I like the old Karajan/DG, but not his later digital one. 

I'm less inclined to Klemperer, Masur is OK too. I also have an old Wand on LP, mostly because of a cover by Roger Hane, and that's it ...


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## Merl

Gardiner, Reuss, Karajan, Bernstein, Klempy are excellent but I'm not a fan of masses at all, these days, so rarely listen to it.


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## Rmathuln

My all time fave is Jochum/Concertgebouw.

Haitink on BR Klassik should not be missed either.

Other good ones include:

Klemperer [EMI/Warner]
Bernstein [DG]
Blomstedt [Querstand]

HIPsters I like:

Herreweghe [PHI]
Gardiner [ARC] (Not SDG)


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## Brahmsianhorn

Bruno Walter 1948
Horenstein
Jochum
Kubelik on Orfeo

All very good. I recommend Jochum as the reference recording in good sound.


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## CnC Bartok

Jeffrey Tate on EMI is an excellent performance.


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## Granate

Not a post about favourites.


























This is a post about the three Klemperer Missa Solemnis I've known, excluding the Live Philharmonia released by Testament.

*Klemperer, New Philharmonia, Warner, 1966*

The first (New Philharmonia Studio) was the one I liked the most and I purchased very long ago. It's been very long since I don't listen to this CD. The bad thing is that I left the CD at my parents home this Christmas so I cannot enjoy it in this quarantine. I don't remember much.

*Klemperer, Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, Medici-ICA, 1955*

Second Back cover shows a 1955 performance in Cologne, which is the one that I have purchased for 12€ (existences are vanishing) and I listened to it with awe but also unconfortable because I thought I knew really little about the work to enjoy its music let alone the characteristics of the performance. The Soloists are ok, maybe better in the bass and alto parts than the soprano/tenor. SQ is a bit cavernous according to my archiphon tapes on Spotify but this CD will have the remaster of the Original Tapes. What's the point of this? The conducting feels to me more revelatory, more crafted, and, especially, this performance counts with the *Organ* of the Saal 1. It's quite special when it sounds. It adds spaciousness to a seemingly poor mono recording.










*Klemperer, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Archipel, 1957*

This is the recording I'm listening to now and I doubt to buy it. I'm hearing very clear advantages compared to Cologne: clearer sound quality almost all the time, very clear playing, but especially *stunning soloist quartet.* The four of them. It can be heavenly but I'm lacking a slight feeling of crafting in the pace. This is really well-brought. Even the first violing in Sanctus is clear.


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## flamencosketches

I ended up getting the Klemperer/Philharmonia/EMI, which I found to be much better than the Ormandy/Philadelphia. I ought to give it a listen again, I don't think I've heard it since around Christmastime.


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## Ulfilas

An awesome work indeed. Either of the following for me:


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## Heck148

Toscanini/NBC is my favorite, the Klemperer/New Philharmonia is good, too.


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## SixFootScowl

I have many sets including Harnoncourt, Karajan, Ormandy, Rilling ,Schuricht, and Zinman that I have listened to yet. *Favorites so far are Ormandy and Schuricht*. Schuricht was actually performend the very day after I was born! Not that that means beans, but it makes me feel like I was born just in time. Too bad mamma didn't have tickets and take me nursing to the concert hall, but since we lived in Detroit and the concert was in Montreux France that was not likely. :lol:

With more listening to the others, I could put them up to my favorites too. But so far this is how it has shaken out.

Oh i have three more in my unripped/unlisted pile, just too busy to get to including Gielen, Gardiner, and Solti. Somehow I think in my masses (pun not intended) of boxes and storage containers I may also have the Giulini Missa, at least I find his MAss in C ripped and the cd image in that folder is the double set so.... where or where could it be.


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## Mathias Broucek

The newer Harnoncourt (CMW, Sony) is an absolute stunner...


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