Skip to content
Karajan conducts Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (1985)

Karajan conducts Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (1985)

Concert

Berliner Philharmoniker

Production Date: 29/09/1985
83 Min

"From the heart – may it go to the heart," was Beethoven's own comment on his Missa Solemnis and he never wrote anything more personal or more profound than this vast setting of the Catholic mass. And there's something both reverent and intensely emotional about this performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan in 1985, which brings together two ensembles that he loved – the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Singverein – as well as a team of soloists with the incomparable José van Dam at its foundation. Unreleased for two nearly two decades after Karajan's death in 1989, this film captures the special aura of an unrepeatable musical occasion.

Soloists
Trudeliese Schmidt (Mezzo-Soprano), José van Dam (Bass-Baritone), Vinson Cole (Tenor), Lella Cuberli (Soprano)
Ensembles
Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Singverein
Conductor
Herbert von Karajan