Tír Na HiFi

Gorgeous music, beautiful played, it really is sumptuous. My only other recording of Missa Solemnis is that by Harnoncourt and I haven't warmed to it yet.

Aren't public holidays just great.

Seán wrote:

Gorgeous music, beautiful played, it really is sumptuous. My only other recording of Missa Solemnis is that by Harnoncourt and I haven't warmed to it yet.

Aren't public holidays just great.

The glorious, soaring voice of Luba Orgonasova is definitely a plus.

Jose Echenique wrote:

Seán wrote:

Gorgeous music, beautiful played, it really is sumptuous. My only other recording of Missa Solemnis is that by Harnoncourt and I haven't warmed to it yet.

Aren't public holidays just great.

The glorious, soaring voice of Luba Orgonasova is definitely a plus.

She has a gorgeous voice Pepe.

Franz Schubert
Symphony no 8
Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich
David Zinman conducting

Jose Echenique wrote:
You have no idea Fergus, the singers actually "acted" the cantatas, and they moved with the grace of ballet dancers. Musically, it was all heaven, every phrase sung and said with exquisite refinement. The young theorbo player (seen next to Christie) literally read Christie´s mind, it was uncanny how they played together. There was a suite by Le Roux with 2 violins, gamba and continuo that was to die for. Listening to Les Arts Florissants in this repertoire you rest assured that it´s as good as it gets.

I know what Christie is capable of with full orchestral forces so I can only imagine what level of detail there was with a chamber ensemble!

Seán wrote:.... I am sitting here scratching my head getting splinters wondering why I had a mental block when it came to considering Zinman and the Tonhalle, I was unfair to the man and this marvellous ensemble.

LOL!! At least you got to hear what he is capable of in the end Seán. I am delighted that you are enjoying your odyssey. If I am researching a new purchase and he comes up in the search he will always get my consideration.

Vocal music by Britten....





Some wonderful, some challenging and some not so appealing.

Seán wrote:

Gorgeous music, beautiful played, it really is sumptuous. My only other recording of Missa Solemnis is that by Harnoncourt and I haven't warmed to it yet.

Aren't public holidays just great.

Missa Solemnis is Beethoven's most astonishing and, in my opinion, greatest, masterpiece.  Everybody will have their preference about a favorite version but the most important thing is that you find a version that allows you to fall in love with the music.  It is the one masterpiece of Beethoven's that appears to present listeners  -  not to mention conductors  -  with the greatest difficulties.  I never fail to find it staggering the level of sustained inspration that Beethoven was workng at in his latter years.  When you look at the Ninth Symphony, the late string quartets and piano sonatas, the Diabelli Variations and the great Missa Solemnis, I do not believe that anybody, in any artistic field, has since worked at such an impossibly high level of creative invention.  And when you consider the man's rapidly failing health and his daily physical suffering, his supreme achievements just beggar belief. I remember reading somewhere that Schubert attended the premiere of one of the late quartets, perhaps Opus 131, and wrote in his journal in awestruck tones that he could not possibly see how you could take music any further.  I really cannot think of a finer compliment that one great composer can pay to another.

Beethoven himself described the Missa Solemnis as <my greatest work>

Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 under Jochum....




[I wish that I did own a Japanese version of this vinyl, and lots more, tbh]