Anyone who recalls the music-making of German Democratic Republic fondly will enjoy these performances. For everybody else, these deeply devoted, musically austere, and spiritually void performances will be an acquired taste. And that's after they get used to the frequent lapses in ensemble, the wayward tempos, and the all too frequent lapses in the all too old soloists. For authentic performance practice fans, these post-modernist performances will hold little charm with their concrete instrumental colors, cast iron tempos, and massed choruses. For everybody else, the density of the original recordings plus the harshness of the remastering will take a lot of getting used to. The bottom line is that these are barely tolerable recordings of serviceable performances, with a measure of musical insight and some occasionally marvelous solo singing. But there have been many sublime and profound performances and many clear and deep recordings, so simply serviceable just isn't enough.
© TiVo