Re: John Quinn's review of Karajan's remastered 1966 Missa Solemnis
Dieter, I too resist Karajan, partly for the same extra-musical reasons, partly because he sometimes laid on the Schlag too thickly, as you say. His 1963 Beethoven symphonies are impressively played but the sforzandi don't bite as they should--the irascible side of Beethoven is repressed. Nonetheless, I've had to admit that his recordings (to name a few) of Haydn's Die Schopfung[/i, the Prokofiev 5th, and Honegger's 2nd and 3rd are extrarordinary. I once owned an early CD transfer of this Missa Solemnis, but it was too murky to appreciate the merits of the performance, so it ended up in the secondhand shop. Will try it again in this restoration soon.
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