Mozart Missa Solemnis "Weisenhausmesse" and Schubert Mass No. 6

Mozart Missa Solemnis in C minor (K139) "Weisenhausmessa" and Schubert Mass No. 6 in E flat major (D 950) concert. Recorded at the 2012 Salzburg Festival. Claudio Abbado conducts the Orchestra Mozart Bologna and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir (Chorus Master Erwin Ortner). Soloists are Rachel Harnisch (soprano), Roberta Invernizzi (soprano), Sara Mingardo (alto), Javier Camarena (tenor), Paolo Fanale (tenor), and Alex Esposito (bass). Directed for TV by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Presented together are Mozart's first mass, written when he was 12, and Schubert's last mass, written just months before his death. David Threasher, writing in the April 2014 Gramophone at page 101, approves of both selections as conducted by Abbado.

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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.