On This Day!

[Joy]

1830 -- Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is performed in its entirety for the first time, at Warnsdorf.

[Peter]

Thanks for that Joy - amazing to think never in his life time! Where is Warnsdorf?

[DavidO]

1830 -- Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is performed in its entirety for the first time, at Warnsdorf.

I'm currently hooked on the great et vitam venturi fugue in the Et resurrexit.

The problem with this Klemperer recording, which is certainly full of power & majesty, is that damn tendency of the solo singers to waver & wobble their singing with all that damn vibrato. I just can't stand all that vibrato in this sort of choral singing, especially in a work like this. It obscures & often even destroys the contrapuntal texture. You should be able to hear clear, solid tones throughout of all the voices wending their individual ways through the fugal passages; but instead you hear vocals wobbling between two or more tones & your sense of direction -- horizontal & vertical -- is confounded.

I want to hear a Missa in which the soloists dispense with most of that damn wobble so that I can hear the et vitam venturi clearly & cleanly. Is the Gardiner/Monteverdi recording a better choice for purchase? I love the Gardiner/Monteverdi recordings of the Choral Fantasy & the Emperor piano concerto!

[Cetto von Cronstorff]

Thanks for that Joy - amazing to think never in his life time! Where is Warnsdorf?

It's Varnsdorf