Missa Solemnis — HDVDARTS

Beethoven Missa solemnis concert. Performed 2021 at the Salzburg Festival. Riccardo Muti conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (Chorus Master Ernst Raffelsberger). Soloists are Rosa Feola (soprano), Alisa Kolosova (contralto), Dmitry Korchak (tenor), and Ildar Abdrazakov (bass). Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Sung in German. Released 2022, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

I associate Michael Beyer strongly with the dread disease of DVDitis. The trailer below does not have even 1 clear whole-orchestra shot. This strongly suggests that this disc will be another colossal disappointment for discerning fans of classical music in Blu-ray format.

Here’s a trailer from C Major:

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.