[ PHI / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 10 December 2012
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
The Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées interpret Beethoven's Missa Solemnis for PHI. This major work of the sacred repertoire, high on the list alongside Bach's Mass in B minor and the Mozart Requiem, is Beethoven's longest work and assuredly the one that demanded the most work. The composer even considered the Mass his finest work.
Philippe Herreweghe shares this opinion and judges the Missa Solemnis to be one of the apogees in the history of classical music. With four superb soloists, a refined chorus and orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe invites us to a thoroughly transcendental experience.
"With a smallish orchestra, period practices and a tight grip on tempos, this is one of the least relenting performances I have heard." (BBC Music)
"The orchestra is a period band but the sceptical and unkeen can rest assured that this is an expressive and weighty performance, to be ranked with any on modern instruments...The orchestra is a constant delight...The adoption of a pitch at nearly a semitone below today's standard helps danger spots...The choir is excellent, with an impressive precision...matched by the soloists, especially by Marlis Petersen." (Gramophone)
"There's a combination of transparency, rhythmic energy and spaciousness in his approach to the work that produces a radiance and power matched by few others...The smaller forces used by Herreweghe here never lack body or impact and the choir is outstanding." (International Record Review)