Over the past few years, Christian Thielemann has been taking the Berlin Philharmonic on a tour of the great sacred choral works of the nineteenth century, including Fauré’s Requiem, Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri and, of course, the Deutsches Requiem of Brahms. For this year’s annual wintertime visit he applied his considerable strengths to Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, one of the most difficult works to pull off but also, when successful, one of the great experiences one can have in a concert hall. While Mr Thielemann’s broad-gestured, physically exhausting conducting style suggested a man locked in a constant struggle for perfection, the refined, balanced sounds that emerged from the orchestra, choir and soloists found a simplicity of expression at the heart of Beethoven’s elaborate score.
Mr Thielemann, not surprisingly, had little problem…
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