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So how to choose? This mass is an unabashed showcase for sopranos. The bass is used to not singing much by himself in a Mozart mass, but the tenor usually gets at least a couple of lines, sometimes a whole section. Not here. I gravitate first to the recordings with the most good soprano solos, so, using the lists, Vad, Christie, and Suzuki would be obvious choices.
Then I look at the ensembles, particularly “Domine Deus”. Vad and Christie don’t present a battle (and Vad is 0/3 with ensembles and has a total score of 9/15), but Suzuki does present a battle (and is 3/3 with ensembles).
Then I look at choruses. Vad and Christie are 6/9 in that department, and both have a jaunty, dancelike “Qui tollis”, which I hate. Suzuki is 9/9, and hearing him bears out that it’s a dandy performance.
But I could not do without my Gardiner, who has the absolute best “Christe” and “Et incarnatus est” with Sylvia McNair. He misses being 15/15 only on a vocalise “Laudamus te” and a too smooth “Domine Deus”, both very listenable in themselves. And I have to have Bernstein (12/15 overall), who has the close second “Et incarnatus est” with Arleen Auger. And Rilling 1991 (11/15 overall), if only for “Et incarnatus est” with Christiane Oelze.
And nobody does “Laudamus te” like Fricsay (10/15 overall) with Hertha Töpper. He may be 1/3 on solos and 0/3 on ensembles, but he’s 9/9 on choruses and wonderfully “old school”, with a big exuberant orchestra and lots of brass and a rubato that no one else could get away with, especially just before the A’ section of “Credo in unum Deum”. Plus he has the Choir of St. Hedwig’s, one of the best there is.
I leave you to peruse my lists and my reviews for what I hear in each movement. Better yet, buy some CDs and do your own reviews. If you’re going to get only one, get Gardiner and remember, he’s on the Philips complete set, which is my favorite for the other masses.
But get Fricsay, too.
–11/12/19
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