Search - Beethoven, Orgonasova, Oppitz :: Beethoven: Missa Solemnis; Choral Fantasy

Good, but not great

Eric S. Kim | Southern California | 04/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While conductor Davis handles the orchestra and choir with a satisfactory touch of his baton, he fails to capture that Viennese Classical feeling. Most of the tempi are too slow, and the emotion seems to be a tad off. The soloists are good, but they do not exceed my expectations after I have heard other great soloists singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.



All in all, this, along with Choral Fantasy, isn't a poor performance, but it isn't an excellent one, either."

Was this work meant to be a Requiem?

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Gramophone review in 1994 was grasping at straws when it described this Missa Solemnis as "meausred and reassuring." That's a thin rationalization to cover Davis's lugubrious tempos and total lack of inner fire. The reviewer was getting desperate by the time he described the Et vitam venturi fugure in the Credo as resembling "the tick of a clock in the timeless world of eternity." right.



On the whole the Bavarian forces sing and play wuite wel, the quartet is above average (despite the Slavic warble of the soprano), and the recorded sound is clear--in this respect Davis's set is ahead of older verions by Karajan, Bernstien, and Klemperer, all of which are superior musically. I think if Beethoven had meant this work to be a Requiem he would have labeled it as one. The filler is better, a sonorous, engaging Choral Fantasy in the grave manner of Klemperer featuring the pianist Gerhard Oppitz, who was favored by BMG when they bought RCA and wanted to promote native German artists--Oppitz faded, but we got the incomparable Thomas Quasthoff during this period."