Beethoven: Missa Solemnis /Monteverdi Choir · English Baroque Soloists · Gardiner

The reletively small orchestra and chorus used mean that there is huge clarity throughout (for once you can hear the solo strings doubling the solo voices in the 'Et incarnatus est'), the tempi are never needlessly slow, it's an incredibly dramatic rendition (the strings and clarinets in the 'Crucifixus' actually sound like the hammering in of nails), and a few highlights for me have to be the flute solo in the 'Et incarnatus est' (again!), the prelude to the Benedictus on divisi violas and cellos (again such a clear sound that you can hear the flutes doubling the viola lines near the bottom of their register), and the wonderful quintet for soloists and solo violin that is the Benedictus itself.

Oh, just go and buy it and listen for yourself!

I was extemely fortunate that this CD appeared on the scene back in 1991,when I was relatively new to classical music,and for some unknown reason I decided to make it my first ever foray into the world of Beethoven,and boy-oh-boy - what a fortuitous decision that turned out to be! You see my only previous experience of choral music had been Mozart's "Great" Mass in C (under the blessed Gardiner of course),and having thoroughly enjoyed this,I was more than ready for more of the same.So once I had taken the "Missa Solemnis" safely back to my lair,I fed it into my CD player,and settled back to enjoy what I naively presumed to be a similiar sound-world as Mozarts.The "Kyrie" gave me no cause for alarm,and indeed I was quite enraptured by it's prayerful,supplicatory unfolding grace.Thus imagine my astonishment when the "Gloria" all but blasts me out of my chair with the full force of it's initial express train impetus! I must confess that it scared me off for a few days,and I put the disc back on the shelf to languish for a while.Just goes to show how daunting this piece can be if you come to it as a "raw recruit",as I did.But once you have these incredible sounds reverberating in your ears,it's impossible to run away from this Mass,and today I consider myself a prisoner for life in it's glorious gaol.

Once you have survived the initial buffeting and bruising of the early stages of the Gloria,you will embark on the most amazing musical voyage through the liturgy,and as much as I love the earlier settings by Mozart,this is way beyond anything he could have envisaged (although given a longer life he may have come back to the genre with a vengeance).Even Haydn in his brilliant "late" masses has nothing like this.But don't think that excuses you from collecting them,because contained therein is some of the most beautiful,heart-rending,soul-easing and downright magical passages in all music.Also,Beethoven's only other earlier setting of the mass,is on no account to be dismissed as a dry-run for it's sky-scraping sibling.It is a fully-formed masterpiece in it's own right,and you could do yourself a great favour by ordering it at the same time as this one.I personally love the performance under George Guest which used to be on the Decca label,but these days appears on Belart.It's at bargain price as well,so it's an absolute steal. The Gloria delivers serenity as well as tempest in it's course,and the contrast between the "Et in terra pax homnibus..." and the opening bars is quite breathtaking in it's ethereal efficacy.Yet perhaps the most ground-breaking thing about Beethoven's treatment of the doxology,is the way he fashions the most incredible fugue from the concluding,"in gloria Dei Patris,Amen".This is where this particular recording and interpretation wins hands down on anything that has come before,with it's perfectly balanced sound-stage.Orchestra,Soloists and choir are ideally integrated,without any particular element hogging the limelight.And so this mighty fugue is at last unbound to storm through the stratosphere with a titanic thrust that would make the Saturn V rocket seem a mere "sparkler" by comparison!

The "Credo" is unusual in that Beethoven fairly rushes through the text itself,and uses a repeated four-note declaration of the word Credo (I believe)itself as a recurring motif throughout.However,sheer magic is worked upon us when the enormous power of the musical forces simply evaporate at,"Et incarnatus" and we are suddenly in the eye of the storm gazing at an azure sky of tear-jerking beauty.It's a quite marvellous moment,and I'm heartily jealous of anyone discovering it for the first time. Beethoven strains our emotions even further in the "Crucifixus" and the slow winding down to "et sepultus est" is exquisitely realised,with some lovely work by the soloists and choir on the word "passus".The forceful (and immediate!) declaration of,"Et resurrexit" leaves us in no doubt about Beethoven's beliefs,and he certainly carries us with him,and virtually propels us skywards at "Et ascendit in coelum" which seems singularly appropriate! The Credo ends with a fugue to match that of the Gloria and a wonderful meditation on the final Amen by the soloists.

The lovely devotional start of the "Sanctus" soon gives way to the magisterial "Pleni sunt coeli" with a forceful setting of "Osanna in excelsis" to conclude.Then comes the most unbelievably serene music ever composed by man.The "Praeludium" may sound like an organ but is in fact Beethoven's wonderful scoring for strings and woodwind.Thus we are gently ushered in to the absolutely heavenly "Benedictus".Never again in music will you discover (and believe me I've looked!) anything quite as stunningly radiant and soul-searing as this particular passage.It will haunt your memory for the rest of your days,and is as close a glimpse of Paradise as we mere mortals are ever likely to get

After that the "Agnus Dei" and "Dona nobis pacem" may seem like an anti-climax,and indeed it's to Beethoven's credit that he doesn't try to "top" what has come before,but ends the Mass with,in his own words,"a Prayer for inner and outer peace".That's exactly what is communicated here,and brings to a dignified close this the most monumental and miraculous settings of the Ordinary of the Mass.

As I said at the beginning of this review,not only is your record collection null and void without this work forming a cornerstone of it's existence: your life is incomplete as well,...this particular CD has got to represent the most incredible value for money ever!