Missa Pastoralis Bohemica

Herbert von Karajans ikonische Aufnahme der Missa Solemnis von 1966 mit den Berliner Philharmonikern und einem herausragendem Quartett von Solisten (Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich und Walter Berry) erscheint erstmals als Blu-ray Audio. Komplett neu gemastered in den renommierten Emil Berliner Studios liegt diese ausgezeichnete Einspielung nun in audiophiler Klangqualität 24bit/192kHz vor. Der Aufnahme liegt ein 20-seitiges Booklet in Deutsch und Englisch bei mit einem exklusiven Kommentar von Gundula Janowitz “Recording with Karajan”.

Ludwig van Beethoven betrachtete die Missa solemnis als "das gelungenste seiner Geistesprodukte".

The Namur Chamber Choir is a popular Belgian vocal ensemble best known for its performances and recordings of early and Baroque choral music. This group, known in French-speaking Europe as the Choeur de Chambre de Namur, is made up of at least a dozen singers, or as many as 32, depending upon the repertory. Speaking of repertory, though the NCC has a decided preference for early music, particularly the works of Lassus, J.S. Bach, Handel, Charpentier, du Mont, Gossec, Fiocco, Gabrieli, Gretry, Gluck, and Pachelbel, members have also sung music by Haydn, Mozart, Fauré, and Franck, as well as works by contemporary composers like Henri Pousseur and Benoît Mernier, whose Missa Christi Regis Genitum (2000) the group recorded to great acclaim.

Conductor René Jacobs' turn to Beethoven has yielded impressive results by going back to Beethoven's works and rethinking them from the ground up. His revival of the opera Leonore, Hess 109, the original 1805 version of Fidelio, Op. 72, made a strong case for that little-performed version. Even better, perhaps, is this 2021 reading of the Missa Solemnis, Op. 123, a notoriously difficult work to interpret. It does not lie easily in the voice ranges of the singers; its mood shifts gears seemingly out of nowhere, and it ends on a seemingly uncertain note. Yet, in no way can the mass be considered a minor Beethoven work. The composer struggled with it for years, missing deadlines and returning to the mass text for fresh study. The work is a personal religious statement from a composer who has variously been called an atheist (by Haydn), an agnostic, or a freethinker. Jacobs treats the mass as a kind of passion play, bringing out the currents of thought in the music with strong contrasts and giving an uncanny sense of Beethoven's own responses to the text. Listen to the Incarnatus, where Jacobs catches the composer's relative lack of interest in the Incarnation as compared with the Crucifixion. Listeners are directed toward the interview-style booklet notes in which Jacobs expands on his ideas; his interpretation of the odd Agnus Dei finale is highly persuasive. In general, the music draws the listener in as if witnessing a spiritual journey. The performances are very strong; there is no hint of Baroque mechanistic quality in the work of the historical-instrument Freiburg Barockorchester, and the soloists handle the vocal challenges as well as any have. This is a Missa Solemnis that yields new insights with each hearing, and it is one that will be heard for many years to come.

Czech Ensemble Baroque's first recording dedicated to František Ignác Antonín Tůma (Requiem, Miserere) confirmed his firm position among Europe's major late-Baroque composers. A pupil of the renowned Viennese master J. J. Fux, his music is characterised by immaculate refined counterpoint, yet he also embraced and brought to bear elements of the incipient Galant style. Dating from three different phases of his life, the three pieces featured on the present album map Tůma's artistic development.

It was when the young Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy that he composed his Missa Cellensis, a work of vast proportions, whose popularity is demonstrated by the many surviving copies.