Rafael Kubelik - Beethoven: Missa solemnis (1994)

When Rafael Kubelik's 1977 recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis was finally released in 1994, the pantheon of great Missa Solemnis recordings had to make room for another member. Along with superb singing from the four soloists and the chorus, the superlative playing from the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and the supreme conducting from Kubelik himself, all the things that make the Missa Solemnis great -- the profundity, the spirituality, and the overwhelming sense that the numinous is imminent -- are present in Kubelik's interpretation. But the thing that makes Kubelik's interpretation truly great is his deep humanity, his ability to unite the heart, the mind and the soul, to make the music breathe and sing and exalt, to reveal Beethoven's sublime vision but to remain deeply and fully human. Along with the 1965 Klemperer, the 1974 Böhm, and the 1940 Toscanini, Kubelik's 1977 recording of the Missa Solemnis is one of the sublime recordings of the Missa Solemnis. Orfeo's live stereo sound is real and vivid.