Beethoven mass in c vocal score

Beethoven's Mass in C Op. John Eliot Gardiner's reading Archiv is an easy first choice. Both the singing and the orchestral playing are top-notch.

Beethoven missa solemnis

The Monteverdi Choir sings with flawless choral blend, precision in diction and intonation, and convincing phrasing—a joy to listen to. The Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, utilizing period instruments, plays with equal precision, and a vast palette of tonal color. No thin sounding strings or shrill winds here—just first-rank playing with an almost fiendish energy.

The soloists are well up to the standards set by the choir and orchestra. The voices are a bit larger and more full-bodied than in many "period" instrument recordings, and the color suits the music perfectly. Robert Shaw's recording Telarc CD is a "big-band" performance with precision and beauty of tone in both the singing and playing, and more expansive tempi than Gardiner.

The deliberate tempo of the Gloria it runs two-ahd-a-half minutes longer than Gardiner is weighty and grand as opposed to light and exuberant. But, as always with Shaw, there is great beauty in the performance, including wonderful contributions by all the soloists. The sound is typical Telarc, clean, round, no brittleness, but with the chorus set a little further back in a rather gauzy acoustic.

Sir Thomas Beecham's recording has long been a yardstick of measurement for performances of this work, and is available in a budget-priced 2-CD set coupled with Beethoven's 2nd and 7th Symphonies CD EMI The Beecham Choral Society's singing is definitely '50's vintage. Their performance is colorful and meaty, if somewhat lacking in the precision and perfect blend of Gardiner's forces.