Bernstein: Mass

I was immensely disappointed by this recording. The tempi are entirely too fast and the parts are miscast. The recording itself sounds muddy, and I get better sound off my 40 yr. old turntable with the original LP on it.

"BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE BERNSTEIN"

"...there are disarmingly beautiful passages in this earnest and boldly eclectic theater piece, like the chorale 'Almighty Father,' with its austerely spacious harmonies, and the bebopping 'Alleluia.' That the work has been championed by contemporary-music dynamos, like the conductor Kent Nagano on his 2003 recording, is a testimony to its strengths."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES (September 11, 208)

This is for sure one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th. century music composed by the genius maestro Leonard Bernstein. Nagano did an excellent job and the sound is simply great!!! If you have the oportunity grab this one and don?t pay attention to the negative reviews, they are just people opinions.

We've waited over 30 years for a new recording of Mass and this is what we get? The instrumental playing is good. But this is a theater piece and cannot survive the solo and choral singing in this performance. It sounds under-rehearsed and uncommitted. I agree that Mr. Hadley does a fine job with the Fraction, but I find he misses the mark throughout the rest of the role. Why was a tenor cast in this baritone role anyway? With rare exceptions, the other soloists demonstrate neither the voice nor the spirit to do justice to their music.

We really do need a new recording that builds on the 30 plus years of performance experience with this piece. Here's hoping that Naxos lets Marin Alsop take up the challenge. Her concert performances of this work over the years surpass both of the available recordings. In the meantime, the original recording is unquestionably the one to get.

There are two complete recordings of MASS in the catalog: Bernstein's own reading and this Nagano thing. From the start, the performers are unengaged, bland, and completely ignorant, apparently, of the piece's content. Everything is pretty, refined, and smooth. There is no emotional drama or edge. The soloists are terrible. In Bernstein's reading, the soloists sing the sometimes cynical and sarcastic words of the text with a hard-edged, almost biting tone, reinforcing the hard-hitting words. In Nagano's version, it sounds like everyone is auditioning for the next Webber music. The vocalists are simply uninvolving, especially after one has heard the much more superb Bernstein reading. The celebrant, especially in the 'Gloria,' sounds very artificial while reciting the texts to the official Ordinary.

While cheap, I would encourage you to pass this one up. For a true, groundshaking rendering of the MASS, get Bernstein's own rendering. It will blow you away with its emotional intensity.