Beethoven: Missa Solemnis / Zinman
Label: ARTE NOVA Catalog: 74321870742 Format: CD Luba Orgonasova (soprano), Anna Larsson (contralto), Rainer Trost (tenor), Franz-Josef Selig (bass) Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Schweizer Kammerchor, David ZinmanAs with the Zinman and Tonhalle traversal of the complete, newly edited Beethoven symphonies (also released on the Arte Nova imprint), this performance of the great Missa Solmenis commands our attention. Tempos in general, are faster than you may remember from other, big-band versions we have revered in the past. Several sections are Daringly Speedy, in fact, when you take into account that a large chorus and four soloists are being musically integrated with the Tonhalle. Everybody has something to say, it seems, under Zinman's vigorous leadership; although nobody gets the spotlight ... except perhaps Zinman as first among equals. Orchestral and vocal/choral textures tilt distinctly towards transparency, even when it seems that everyone is busy singing and playing. The rhythms are consistently sprung in a lively manner. A listener may be excused for thinking that Beethoven's sense of worship and awe is almost always a physically tangible sense of motion or movement, so often do these musicians make this Missa Solemnis dance right out, shaking with celebration. This is new-school Beethoven, aggressively influenced by the decades of scholarship and recreated performance practice we lump together under the banners of Early Music or Original Instruments. Rather than displace anybody else we have come to love in this work, Zinman and company bid to establish their own place on the shelf, right alongside whomever else we have already elected to sit there. Price: $17.98 |