A Fine Performancs of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis

I recommend a performance by Rudolf Barshai and the Russian National Orchestra from 1993. I learned much detail from the recording, on Capriccio 1plus #51036, along with Beethoven Ninth Symphony/Bloomstedt Dresden Staatskepelle, although the former is the superior of the two. Today I had to drag out my score (Eulenberg) and read along, particularly the Cum Sanctus Fugue. The win in this recording is excellant engineering and chorus perperation, which in the above fugue, allowed me to hear inner parts easily. Less than snappy choral conducting leads to mushy sound especially in either of the great fugues that end the Gloria and Credo of this work, and no less than in the shorter Osanna. Beethoven's vocal writing is notoriously taxing on singers, but the discipline of this ensamble brings out the wonder of Beethoven's conception.